Posted by Exclusive: Dee Forbes racked up nearly €16,000 in taxi bills during time as RTE Director General
Information released by RTÉ to the Irish Mirror under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) reveals over 350 transactions linked to Ms Forbes, ranging between €1.17 and €580.23
Nearly €16,000 was spent on taxis for Dee Forbes during her seven-year stint as Director General of RTÉ, the Irish Mirror can reveal.
Information released by RTÉ to this newspaper under the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) reveals over 350 transactions linked to Ms Forbes, ranging between €1.17 and €580.23.In the fallout that followed, Ms Forbes was linked to multiple other scandals at the national broadcaster. This included former Chief Financial Officer Breda O’Keeffe’s €450,000 redundancy package not being signed off properly.The Cork woman has not been seen or heard since she stood down, with her solicitor repeatedly telling Oireachtas committees that she was too unwell to attend meetings. Documents released to the Irish Mirror under FOI now reveal that taxi journeys worth €15,805.82 were taken by Ms Forbes between 2016 and 2023Former RTE director-general Dee Forbes and Ryan Tubridy (Image: Collins)
RTÉ was only able to provide the Irish Mirror with a handful of receipts, stating that when a claim for expenses is submitted electronically, “it would often be accompanied by the relevant receipts in a paper envelope”.
They added: “The envelopes are kept locally in boxes before being sent off-site for storage. The receipts attached were the only ones found.”
A separate spreadsheet was provided to the Irish Mirror with data from the former Director General’s costpool for taxi services. It was confirmed that two other people used the costpool, but their transactions were redacted.
In total, there were 352 transactions. Many of these were bills for “weeks ending”, meaning that multiple journeys may have been taken. The highest bill was for the week ending November 30, 2018 when €580.23 was paid to a taxi company..
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