Former RTÉ chair offered to speak to Catherine Martin on phone and threatened to resign three times before dramatic exit
‘I cannot remain silent’ – former RTÉ chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh takes aim at Catherine Martin
Former RTÉ chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh told Catherine Martin’s top official she would have been happy to speak to the Media Minister on the phone and threatened to resign three times just hours before her dramatic exit last month, new documents show.
Newly-released correspondence from the Department of Media includes its record of a series of phone calls between the minister’s top officials and Ms Ní Raghallaigh on February 22 in the hours leading up to her resignation.
The documents sent to Oireachtas Media Committee also include the now-infamous letter, which led to the former chair’s resignation, that was sent on the evening of February 22 before Ms Martin’s Prime Time interview where she failed to express confidence in Ms Ní Raghallaigh
Ms Martin has also disclosed the dates of 15 meetings she said she had with the former chair during her 15-month tenure – following criticism by Ms Ní Raghallaigh of the minister’s “hands-off” approach.
The list of meetings show the minister and the former chair did not meet for just over seven weeks between July 6 and August 25 last year. They also failed to meet for nearly 11 weeks between November 9 last year and January 23 this year.
In the February 22 letter, Ms Martin told Ms Ní Raghallaigh she was “deeply disappointed” she had not received correct information in two meetings earlier that week about the RTÉ board signing off on an exit package for former chief financial officer Richard Collins the previous October.
Ms Martin’s decision to send the letter and a subsequent interview on Prime Time led to Ms Ní Raghallaigh’s resignation, plunging the broadcaster into a fresh crisis and piling pressure on the Green Party deputy leader over her handling of the matter.
A two-page note drawn up by Department of Media secretary general Feargal Ó Coigligh and assistant secretary Tríona Quill records their account of their calls with the now former chair on February 22.
On a call at 6.45pm, Mr Ó Coigligh told Ms Ní Raghallaigh that the minister would issue a letter seeking a formal meeting over being given incorrect information and that she would not conceal that she had been given wrong information by the chair if asked on Prime Time later that evening.
“The chair stated she was unhappy at being called to another meeting that week. She would resign should she receive a letter calling her to such a meeting. She said she would be happy to speak to the minister on the phone,” the note states.
Ms Martin never spoke on the phone to Ms Ní Raghallaigh prior to her resignation, despite the former chair’s offer to do so.
The 6.45pm call was the second time that day Ms Ní Raghallaigh had told Mr Ó Coigligh she would resign if she received a letter. She told him in a call at 2.30pm that “she considered that the receipt of such a letter would demonstrate a lack of confidence in her as chair and that she felt she would be unable to remain on in the position”, according to the secretary general’s note.
The threat to resign was reiterated for a third time by Ní Raghallaigh on another call with Mr Ó Coigligh at 7.10pm. Ms Quill called the former chair after 7.30pm to say the minister had decided to issue the letter and it was sent a few minutes later.
The note also records the former chair telling Ms Quill at 2pm earlier that day that “she imagined that she would have also referred to the role of the remuneration committee in that conversation” – a reference to a conversation Ms Ní Raghallaigh had with former secretary general Katherine Licken the previous October about the RTÉ board signing off on Mr Collins’s exit package.
Ms Ní Raghallaigh has publicly disputed this account of her use of the word “imagine”. The former chair said in a blistering statement on Monday that she had told Ms Quill she would “imagine” that the detail of her conversation with the former secretary general had been passed onto the minister.
“A different construction is now being put on that, my use of the word ‘imagine’ is now being misrepresented,” the former chair said in her 2,300-word statement, which has put fresh pressure on Ms Martin.
The note also records a call between Ms Quill and Ms Licken about the former secretary general’s call the previous October with Ms Ní Raghallaigh. “The former secretary general had no recollection of being told that it was approved by the remuneration committee of the board,” the note states.
In the letter to Ms Ní Raghallaigh that led to the chair’s resignation, Ms Martin wrote: “At our meetings yesterday and on Monday 19 February, I asked if there was any board involvement in approving the severance package for the former chief financial officer of RTÉ, Mr Richard Collins.
“You advised me that the board had no role. You have today clarified that this was an error and that the remuneration committee approved the severance package in relation to Mr Collins on 10 October 2023.
“I am deeply disappointed that I did not receive the correct information on this important matter. I would like to meet you tomorrow at 10am to discuss these matters further.”
In her letter to committee chair Fianna Fáil TD Niamh Smyth today, Ms Martin writes: “At the committee meeting, members also raised the issue of the level of engagement between me as minister and the former Chair. As such I believe that it may be helpful to set out for the committee’s information that since the crisis at RTE emerged on 22 June last year, I met with the chair on 12 occasions:
She adds: “I also met with Ms Ní Raghallaigh on 7th December 2022 shortly after her appointment, on 13th February 2023 when I visited RTÉ, and on 10 May 2023 when I met the former chair and the incoming DG. This brings to 15 the number of meetings I had with the former chair over the 15 months of her tenure.”
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