Sherlock calls for Martin to resign as Minister

Labour Senator Marie Sherlock has called on media Minister Catherine Martin to resign.

Labour media spokesperson Marie Sherlock has said Catherine Martin’s position as Media Minister is now untenable following the resignation of the chair of the RTÉ board.

Siún Ní Raghallaigh resigned as Chair of the RTÉ Board following comments made by Minister Catherine Martin on Prime Time.

Senator Sherlock said that from the beginning of the RTÉ scandal last June, Martin has “been on the back foot.”

“In the context of multiple bailouts of RTÉ by the public, we now know for sure that the Minister failed to ask the most basic questions.”

“She has presided over a most damaging period for the State broadcaster where public trust has been totally demolished.”

Sherlock took issue with Martin failing to call for people to “unequivocally” pay their TV licences, with RTÉ taking a revenue hit to the tune of €20 million as people tuned out of RTÉ

The latest scandal to rock RTÉ, the exit packages saga, has caused what remains of public trust in RTÉ to erode further.

Sherlock said “from the former Chairperson’s statement last night, it appears that Minister Martin was in fact kept abreast of details of exit packages some former RTÉ executives received.”

“Ní Raghallaigh’s statement suggests that the Department has a written record of notification from the Board following the remuneration committee’s approval of exit packages; this must be published in full immediately.”

She said “The Media Minister is the protector of RTÉ but crucially, the Minister should be the protector of the public purse.”

“The Taoiseach and the Tánaiste must now reflect on the Media Minister’s handling of this whole debacle, and ask, is she the person to ensure that necessary reforms take place in RTÉ that will be crucial to its survival, and is she the person who can restore public trust in the State broadcaster?”

Fine Gael’s Helen McEntee has defended Marttin, saying “I think the difficulty here is all of us want to have confidence in RTÉ, we want to have confidence in those managing it and we want to move forward, that we have a plan in place that people have confidence in.”

“Unfortunately when we continue to have information coming out in the way that it is on numbers of different of issues, it is very difficult for people to have confidence. This will add to the challenges RTÉ is facing now.”