RTÉ sports department no confidence motion over Ger Gilroy appointment, Digi Mart USA News (Ireland): The RTÉ sports department has issued a unanimous motion of no confidence in senior leadership at the State broadcaster over its handling of the appointment of Ger Gilroy.
Staff members held a chapel meeting of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) on Wednesday to discuss the appointment. Members of the RTÉ sports department are said to be livid over an apparent lack of transparency regarding the circumstances that led to Gilroy becoming the presenter of the new Howler Sport podcast.
Gilroy helmed Off the Ball on Newstalk for 24 years, becoming its managing director in 2018. At an Oireachtas media committee last week, RTÉ officials denied Gilroy had been headhunted, but confusion remains over the sequence of events that led to his appointment.
In a recent interview with The Irish Times, Gilroy said he received a call from former Newstalk colleague Hugh Ormond, now RTÉ’s head of podcasts, who pitched a daily sports podcast to him. These remarks were at odds with comments made by Patricia Monahan, RTÉ’s head of audio, who last month told the Irish Independent that Gilroy applied via an expressions-of-interest process.
Monahan last week told the media committee she “never said that Ger applied through an expression-of-interest process”. Rather, he took part in “an expressions-of-interest process” after which he was deemed “the most appropriate candidate”.
In a statement issued after the NUJ chapel meeting on Wednesday, members said: “Recent revelations regarding the appointment of a new podcast presenter have brought embarrassment, dishonour and ridicule, yet again, to RTÉ.” They said that at the first meeting of the newly re-formed NUJ sports chapel, members had unanimously expressed no confidence in the RTÉ senior leadership team who had presided over the matter.
“RTÉ staff have been consistently told that the era of murky practices, secret deals and a general lack of transparency is in the past, but the events of the last weeks have shown us in fact that nothing has changed.”
Members of the chapel also rejected statements made by director general Kevin Bakhurst and deputy director general Adrian Lynch at the Oireachtas media committee last week, claiming “the opinion and motivation of staff in criticising the recruitment process were falsely framed”. The statement urged Bakhurst and Lynch “to reflect on their regrettable comments, which maligned their own staff”.
The NUJ chapel said the matter raised a number of issues. “The financial implications are of grave concern at a time when the organisation is facing a severe cash and funding shortfall,” the statement said.
It added that the “apparent a-la-carte adherence to transparent HR practices” had aggrieved sports staff, who face long-standing issues including incorrect grading, career progression and a lack of programme resourcing, including underinvestment in technology.
“We believe the values of public service broadcasting have been trumped by commercial interests,” the statement said. It pointed to the lack of women’s voices on the new podcast in its first few weeks as evidence of this, and said “serious questions must be answered in relation to accountability and process within the organisation”.
It is understood Bakhurst has agreed to meet all members of the broadcaster’s sports department next Wednesday. A spokesman said RTÉ “acknowledges receipt of an anonymous email from the newly formed NUJ sports chapel and will respond in due course”, adding that “this is not an NUJ motion, but an internal branch motion”.
RTÉ confirmed Bakhurst is due to meet staff from its sports department next week to “discuss recent events”. RTÉ representatives will also attend next week’s quarterly trade union group meeting, as well as a separate meeting with the NUJ, the statement said.
RTÉ’s leadership team rejected the characterisation of these events and the conclusions referenced in what it described as “sensational language” in the anonymous email. It said podcasting remains a core part of RTÉ’s new direction strategy and its commitment to serve important and engaging content to audiences, while also meeting its legal obligations to raise commercial revenue to fund its public service output.
