Sir, – With no reflection on Patrick Kielty, the process to appoint Ryan Tubridy’s replacement as presenter of The Late Late Show, as explained by the interim deputy director of RTÉ to the Oireachtas media committee last week, left me totally flabbergasted.
A long list of about 20 potential replacements was drawn up. The people who were on this list weren’t informed they were on it. You can’t apply to be on the list. There was no ad in the newspaper or internal email to invite applications.
Then the list was whittled down to a short list. The people who were on the short list weren’t informed they were on it. The people who weren’t on the short list but who had been on the long list weren’t informed they had been taken off it (or why). Meanwhile, when all this was going on, speculation was rife in the media, and high- profile people were saying they didn’t want the job even though we now know that they weren’t ever told if they were on any list – long or short.
Then, lo and behold, a person was offered the job. There was no information provided as to how a sum of money to do the show was arrived at (or if anyone had turned down the job). In this instance, the new presenter is bringing someone with him to produce the show as well.
Other potential new names for the Department of Arts: Smacc, Cacs, Scam and – my favourite – DoSac
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The long and the short of it: anti-competitive, non-transparent, unfair, an anointment (not an appointment) process, has no place in a semi-State body – for any job, least of all for one of the highest paid jobs. – Yours, etc,
CHRIS FITZPATRICK,
Dublin 6.
