What is Robert Shortt of RTE playing at?
He's on the RTE board as staff rep last summer, piously trotting in to Dáil Committee hearings to tell us how sorry he felt, and how sorry the hard-working journalists felt, about RTE's embarrassing woes. Oh, Robbie, don't take it so bad, it wasn't your fault - it was the execs that did the harm, all you did was trust them: no one could expect a news reporter to be a forensic accountant. That's what we all thought, of course.
Now we have a new (and naturally briskly vigilant) RTE Board and Mr R. Shortt is reported as having stood down from it. To facilitate the new administration, of course. An honourable chap, our Robbie. He is doing the decent thing, giving the Minister and Chair a scope to make fresh appointments to the Board. New blood, of course: quality professionals in their fields and willing to forsake their high-income careers so as to earnestly serve the public weal. Ah yes, says Cyril Cusack. Ah yes, it must be so.
Now what's this last item about the RTE Board. Ah yes, it's the small matter of the Secretary appointment. An eminent barrister and expert in administrative law, I suppose. Or maybe a recently retired Secretary from blue-chip company. That would be the perfect touch for keeping meetings on topic and on schedule. And mindful of the public trust. A man who won't let a headstrong board member pull fast ones on the public purse. A king of detail and minutiae, a paragon of virtue and a bulwark of probity.
Let's see now . . . the new RTE Board Secretary is . . . a Mr Robert Shortt.
Strange. How coincidental that the new man has 2 Ts in his Shortt. Just like old Board member, Robbie. Same first name too. But it can't be, can it? It just can't be that old Robbie read for the Chartered Governance Institute exams since last summer, can it? And even if he did, how could he be ready for a senior administrative role in a major organisation with no Secretarial experience at all behind him? And for an organisation so much in the public spotlight this past year . . . sure they'd never be as brazen as that - even in RTE - would they?
Or would they? Didn't someone say they ran the notion of a Toy Show Musical to an impresario supreme called Siún Ní up there in Montrose? I know Robbie's no showman but if anyone's around these people, these darling society types, some of it has to rub off on you hasn't it? I suppose it all got to poor oul Robbie, all the rot and stink of Montrose: it just soaked into the boy, a case of socio-professional osmosis . . . gone and lost forever more to us, och ochón!
Some lads in Madigan's might be thinking Robbie's a smart lad. Being Secretary of the RTE Board lets him see what's on the agenda for every meeting, attend every meeting and push or stop things as he pleases. They might be thinking this here boy's the brains of the outfit. He should have his blood bottled. People will pay to savour his wisdom.
I don't go along with the urban cowboys of Madigan's.
But I do think it's time to get Shortty.
He's on the RTE board as staff rep last summer, piously trotting in to Dáil Committee hearings to tell us how sorry he felt, and how sorry the hard-working journalists felt, about RTE's embarrassing woes. Oh, Robbie, don't take it so bad, it wasn't your fault - it was the execs that did the harm, all you did was trust them: no one could expect a news reporter to be a forensic accountant. That's what we all thought, of course.
Now we have a new (and naturally briskly vigilant) RTE Board and Mr R. Shortt is reported as having stood down from it. To facilitate the new administration, of course. An honourable chap, our Robbie. He is doing the decent thing, giving the Minister and Chair a scope to make fresh appointments to the Board. New blood, of course: quality professionals in their fields and willing to forsake their high-income careers so as to earnestly serve the public weal. Ah yes, says Cyril Cusack. Ah yes, it must be so.
Now what's this last item about the RTE Board. Ah yes, it's the small matter of the Secretary appointment. An eminent barrister and expert in administrative law, I suppose. Or maybe a recently retired Secretary from blue-chip company. That would be the perfect touch for keeping meetings on topic and on schedule. And mindful of the public trust. A man who won't let a headstrong board member pull fast ones on the public purse. A king of detail and minutiae, a paragon of virtue and a bulwark of probity.
Let's see now . . . the new RTE Board Secretary is . . . a Mr Robert Shortt.
Strange. How coincidental that the new man has 2 Ts in his Shortt. Just like old Board member, Robbie. Same first name too. But it can't be, can it? It just can't be that old Robbie read for the Chartered Governance Institute exams since last summer, can it? And even if he did, how could he be ready for a senior administrative role in a major organisation with no Secretarial experience at all behind him? And for an organisation so much in the public spotlight this past year . . . sure they'd never be as brazen as that - even in RTE - would they?
Or would they? Didn't someone say they ran the notion of a Toy Show Musical to an impresario supreme called Siún Ní up there in Montrose? I know Robbie's no showman but if anyone's around these people, these darling society types, some of it has to rub off on you hasn't it? I suppose it all got to poor oul Robbie, all the rot and stink of Montrose: it just soaked into the boy, a case of socio-professional osmosis . . . gone and lost forever more to us, och ochón!
Some lads in Madigan's might be thinking Robbie's a smart lad. Being Secretary of the RTE Board lets him see what's on the agenda for every meeting, attend every meeting and push or stop things as he pleases. They might be thinking this here boy's the brains of the outfit. He should have his blood bottled. People will pay to savour his wisdom.
I don't go along with the urban cowboys of Madigan's.
But I do think it's time to get Shortty.