HEARING | 

Ryan Tubridy and Noel Kelly to bring solicitors when questioned by Oireachtas on RTÉ pay controversy

One solicitor apiece will be seated behind their clients for the high-profile committee hearing next week.

Yesterday at 18:50

Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly will be accompanied by their solicitors when they face questions from Oireachtas Media Committee.

One solicitor apiece will be seated behind their clients for the high-profile committee hearing next week.

The decision comes on foot of a request for such a move from the Hayes legal firm, with the clerk reminding committee members that they were coming in to answer questions of their own volition, and could not be compelled.

On this basis, it was agreed that the request for two lawyers to be present was not unreasonable.

Committee chair Niamh Smyth said it was an unprecedented step for her committee to have lawyers in the room where proceedings were being televised.

“It is a new one on me,” she said. “I have never seen it before, and it has never been done in this committee. But the situation itself is unprecedented.”

Both lawyers would be coming from the Hayes legal firm.

Meanwhile, members of the Public Accounts Committee will get a “legal briefing” from the Office of the Parliamentary Legal Adviser half an hour before they are due to meet with Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly next Tuesday.

The legal briefing is likely to involve Oireachtas lawyers warning PAC members to stay within the scope of the committee’s inquiries into RTÉ when questioning the two high-profile witnesses.

Oireachtas committees have increasingly been reminded of their legal obligations by in-house lawyers in the wake of the Supreme Court finding that the PAC acted unlawfully in its treatment of former Rehab chief Angela Kerins nearly a decade ago.

It comes as it emerged RTE’s head of sport Declan McBennett has been invited to appear before Public Accounts Committee (PAC) next week to answer questions along with the other RTE senior executives who have appeared before hearings in the last two weeks. The invite follows GAA correspondent Marty Morrisey handing back a car he was given by Renault because he believed accepting it had been an “error of judgment”. He was given the car by the company after he hosted a series of GAA events organised by Renault

Incoming director general Kevin Bakhurst has also being requested to attend the same meeting next Thursday morning.

Also invited to attend are: interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch; former director general Noel Curran; chair of the board Siún Ní Raghallaigh; former chair of the board Moya Doherty; chief financial officer Richard Collins; former chief financial officer Breda O’Keeffe; commercial director Geraldine O’Leary; director of legal affairs Paula Mullooly and director of content Jim Jennings.

Meanwhile, Mr Tubridy and Mr Kelly were told the PAC will be questioning them on the following topics: