Ireland's public broadcaster spent €5,000 on flip flops as scandal over governance grows

Ireland's public broadcaster RTE has faced mounting criticism after it emerged that it spent €5,000 ($5,500) on flip flops following a parliamentary probe into its financial governance.

The scandal-hit body has been accused of operating a “slush fund” to pay the lavish expenses of its top executives during a period when it was cutting jobs and reducing employee pay due to concerns over its funding.

The revelations emerged after it admitted that it paid its top presenter Ryan Tubridy €345,000 more than it had publicly disclosed between 2017 and 2022, some of which was processed through a UK-based “barter” account.

The scandal has already triggered the resignation of its director general Dee Forbes, who has refused to attend parliamentary hearings over the dealings, citing ill health.

The Irish broadcaster, which is sustained through public funds and commercial revenue, has also faced criticism for using barter transactions to spend hundreds of thousands of euros entertaining commercial clients, including on a trip to the Rugby World Cup in Japan.

A series of further transactions was revealed on Wednesday, including almost €5,000 spent on flip flops for a summer party for clients.

Committee member Brendan Griffin, a Fine Gael politician, was highly critical of the spending on the 200 pairs of flip flops for a summer party for clients.

“Two hundred pairs of flip flops at €34 each – this is what’s going through this account. This isn’t a barter account, this is a slush fund,” he said.

“And all of these entries ask more questions of RTE, who was benefiting, who knew what, why wasn’t this showing up?”

Commercial director Geraldine O’Leary robustly defended the expenditure on entertaining clients, highlighting the importance of building strong relationships with companies that spent millions of euros advertising with RTE.

But Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described the revelations of further RTE “barter” accounts as a “disquieting development”.

“It’s essential that public trust in RTE is restored following the revelations of the past few weeks and the government has agreed to proposals for a root-and-branch examination of RTE,” he told Ireland's parliament.

Speaking during Leaders’ Questions, Mr Varadkar said full transparency from RTE had been absent and he said that must change “immediately”.

He said the “drip feed” of information was doing “untold damage”.

“We absolutely understand that the erosion of confidence has done enormous damage and it’s imperative that full clarity around these and all issues is forthcoming without further delay,” he said.