Dee Forbes: A profile of the former RTE chief

Deirdre Anne ‘Dee’ Forbes (born February 1,1967) is an Irish former broadcasting executive, who was the DirectorGeneral of RTÉ from April 2016 to this month. She was the rst woman to hold the role, and the rst external appointment in almost 50 years. Prior to joining RTÉ, she was President and Managing Director of Discovery Networks Northern Europe.

In June 2023, it emerged that RTÉ paid broadcaster Ryan Tubridy €345,000 more than publicly declared between 2017 and 2022. Forbes was suspended from her employment a day prior to the controversy and issued a statement defending her record. She ultimately resigned with immediate e ect on June. 26

Dee Forbes comes from Drimoleague, County Cork, where her parents ran the East End bar. She attended nation- al school in the village, before going to boarding school in Clonakilty. She then went on to study history and politics at UCD. Soon after graduating from UCD, she moved to the UK in 1989, beginning her career with advertising agency Young and Rubicam.

Before joining Discovery, Forbes led Turner Broadcasting’s business in the UK and Ireland, which consisted of seven entertainment channels, including Cartoon Network, Boomerang and TCM. She is a former non-executive director of the board of e Irish Times.

On April 1, 2016, she was appointed as Director-General of RTÉ following a recruitment process overseen by its board. In November 2020, RTÉ apologised after several top news presenters and correspondents, including Bryan Dobson, David McCullagh, Miriam O’Callaghan, Eileen Dunne and Paul Cunningham, were photographed – in the time of the Covid pandemic – at a retirement party at RTÉ headquarters where social distancing was not fully observed. Taoiseach Micheál Martin described the photographs as “very disappointing”.

A month later, a health and safety review conducted by RTÉ into the gathering found that ve breaches of Covid-19 protocols occurred, with up to 40 people present at the time.

On ursday, June 22, RTÉ admitted that it paid broadcaster Ryan Tubridy €345,000 more than publicly declared between 2017 and 2022, in what the chair of its board said was a “serious breach of trust with the public”.

Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin said it was unacceptable that the expected standards of transparency and accountability had not been met. e National Union of Journalists (NUJ) said the secret nature of payments was a “breach of trust unparalleled in the history of RTÉ” and that RTÉ journalists spoke of how “devastated, ashamed, betrayed and angered” they were. It was revealed the next day that Dee Forbes had been suspended from her employment by the RTÉ Board, a day prior to the controversy, and she issued a statement defending her record.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar described the controversy as a breach of trust and truth between RTÉ and the Government, the Oireachtas and the people.

On Monday June 26 , Dee Forbes tendered her resignation fromRTE with immediate e ect – and said she would not be appearing before the Oireachtas committee inquiry because of ‘health issues’ impaced by the whole a air. Because she resigned, Dee Forbes is not obligatorily obliged to attend the hearings.