Eamon Ryan suspected Catherine Martin would be asked about confidence in former RTÉ chair but did not discuss it, he says

The Minister said he had spoken to Minister Martin ahead of her interview with Miriam O’Callaghan on the flagship show. However, Minister Ryan said while a range of possibilities were discussed, a question on Ms Martin’s confidence in the chair was not one of them.

“Of course I suspected it was a possibility,” Minister Eamon Ryan said on RTÉ’s Drive Time.

“There was a whole variety of possibilities discussed,” the minister added.

When asked what he said to fellow Green Party colleague Catherine Martin in relation to the question arising, the party leader said:

“I don’t think we actually considered whether that question would be asked in our conversation.”

Ms Ní Raghallaigh resigned hours after the minister's appearance on Prime Time. However, Minister Ryan said he did not believe the former chair was essentially sacked on air.

“I think it’s deeply regrettable. There was broad support for the work Siún was doing and RTÉ is doing and the board and the need for us to get on, get the governance reports in, resolve the issue on the financing of RTÉ and focus on the future,” Mr Ryan said.

“But also as a minister you have to have real confidence that you’re getting the full picture and if in a series of instances that wasn't the case in what wasn’t a small issue, I fully understood Catherine’s concerns,” he added.

When asked if he believed the media minister could have handled things better, Mr Ryan said that he had confidence in how minister Martin approached it.

While Eamon Ryan said he had not discussed the question of confidence in the former RTÉ chair, he said he had discussed the situation that would be addressed on the programme.

“I was aware of the concern she had and the events that had happened unfortunately that week and the lack of clarity in terms of the issue of the severance payments and who was aware of that,” Mr Ryan said.

“There were further developments even between that time, roughly about 7pm, 7:30pm and the programme. I think in that interim period that issue [around] was the board involved, that the media themselves were asking questions about it. So, it changed even between that phonecall and the final programme.

Minister Ryan said the relationship between the government and the former chair had been one in which the government had confidence and believed that Ms Ní Raghallaigh was doing a good job.

However, he said there was a “significant difficulty” when Ms Ní Raghallaigh misinformed the minister of the renumeration committees' involvement in exit payments.

“But there was a real difficulty and a real problem that the issue that the renumeration committee had approved those exit packages but that was not informed to government and not in a series of occasions last week when that opportunity was provided wasn’t clarified. That was a significant difficulty,” Minister Ryan said.