Chair of the Oireachtas Media Committee and Cavan-Monaghan TD, Niamh Smyth, has exclusively revealed on Northern Sound that Dee Forbes has just turned down the latest invitation to come before the committee to answer questions on her role in the RTÉ scandal.
As former RTÉ director general, and first to leave her post when controversy kicked off over eight months ago, Niamh Smyth said Ms Forbes is "an integral part in all the controversies" so far.
Dee Forbes has been unable to attend to date, due to ill health. Her latest refusal may be the last chance the Committee and the public will get the opportunity to hear Ms Forbess side of the story of the RTÉ payments scandal and its fall-out Deputy Smyth said the committee are waiting on two reports one on the culture at RTÉ and one on governance and oversight at the company before she can write up her chairperson's report based on the findings of the long-running Media Committee inquiry.
"Dee Forbes is key to all that," Deputy Smyth said. Niamh Smyth revealed live on air that just half an hour before she sat on a panel discussion on the Joe Finnegan Show this morning that the clerk of the committee informed her that Dee Forbes turned down the latest invitation to attend the Oireachtas inquiry. Niamh Smyth said she was disappointed:
