Dear Dee,

Just a few lines to say how thrilled I am to see you out and about at last and looking as good as new.

After all you have been through, you poor thing, it must be a joy to enjoy the summer with Dennis and the gang in heavenly West Cork. The heatwave can be exhausting but you looked as fresh as a daisy in the photos. The minute I spotted the convertible Merc, I knew it was you.

There’s always a great buzz in Hayes’s pub isn’t there? It’s pricey for sure but the chowder and Moroccan lamb are to die for. As for the views across the bay – spectacular.

I don’t have to remind you, Dee, of the massive scare we had three years ago when you seemed to disappear off the face of the Earth. There were desperate rumours circulating around Montrose, and indeed the Dáil, about the true state of your health which I won’t dignify by repeating.

Journalists are such ghouls, but I don’t think politicians are very far behind them.

I read one story about a reporter knocking at your house in Glandore and Dennis telling them to f*** off. Proper order. The cheek of them, disturbing someone on their sickbed.

Fair enough, the various committees were up in arms about your prolonged absence, the politicians were crying out for answers and the mood in the country was mutinous.

At one point the outcry was so bad, it looked as if RTÉ might have to shut up shop altogether.

But what in God’s name did they expect you to do about it? Jeopardise your recovery by appearing on videolink or supplying written depositions to the committees?

Anyway, none of that matters now Dee, seeing how you’re back on your feet and as fit as a fiddle. You must have been raging at getting so sick, just as the Ryan Tubridy scandal broke and Siún Ní Raghallaigh suspended you.

It was rotten timing that you couldn’t defend yourself and could not even take part into the Grant Thornton review after Siún pushing for your resignation.

We never know what’s around the corner, do we?

I bet you heard about Communications Minister Patrick O’Donovan taking a turn last month in Brussels?

He was in such a state, he had to be flown home on the Government jet, but he plans to be back at his desk in September. Also, you may have heard about Richard Boyd Barrett getting throat cancer. He took six months off work for chemo and radiotherapy. Thankfully he’s as right as rain again, and as annoying as ever.

You must have been at death’s door, Dee, the length of time you were laid up.

I don’t need to tell you that with the committees resuming in the autumn as per usual, we will be delighted to have you appear in front of the Public Accounts Committee and Media Committee to give your side of the story. It has been too long, and I can assure you of a wholehearted welcome and every assistance in this final push to get to the truth.

I hope you don’t mind if I outline below the areas of special focus so that you can have the rest of the summer to prepare and jog your memory about the events you are so uniquely placed to explain.

* The Tubridy payments scandal still hasn’t gone away. What light can you shed on the ‘off the books’ €345,000 payment he received? RTÉ said you alone could have known that his published salary was false, so if that is true, why did you not correct the public record?

* Then there are the cushy exit packages for top executives, particularly the eye-watering redundancy package for chief finance officer Breda O’Keeffe, that flouted the rules of the station’s voluntary exit schemes. The head of human resources says you instructed her to sign off on Breda’s €450,000 package even though her position wasn’t being made redundant.

* The labyrinthine system of barter accounts, false invoices and credit notes that facilitated Tubridy’s salary top-ups, including €75,000 a year for promotional work for Renault, were also, according to management, signed off on your instructions.

* Did you also sanction using the barter accounts to squander thousands on membership of swanky Soho House in London, concert and match tickets and the infamous flip-flops episode?

* Toy Show The Musical is another puzzle. Who green-lit such a commercial risk for an organisation that couldn’t afford to lose a thousand euro, never mind €2.7million, after selling just 11,000 tickets? Niamh Smyth, chair of the Media Committee, charged RTÉ management with ‘cooking the books’ when it was revealed that €75,000 was transferred to the show’s accounts in an apparent attempt to conceal its losses. Your fingerprints are all over this too, Dee.

* Why did you turn a blind eye to the lucrative side-hustles of presenters who brazenly exploited a publicly owned utility to inflate their private wealth, no questions asked? Doireann Garrihy filming a porridge ad from the radio studio and Lottie Ryan making an electric car ad in the Montrose car park were emblematic of the free-for-all. Were you so starstruck by the ‘talent’ that you bent over backwards to please them?

Looking forward to your invaluable input and insights, Dee. If more questions come to mind, I’ll be sure to pass them on.

In the meantime, enjoy the rest of the summer.

Best,

Mary Carr, 

Secretary to the committees