Killeigh native ‘recorded RTÉ reports from London toilets'

Local people have been reacting with disbelief to the news this week that Killeigh native Fiona Mitchell was “forced to use toilet facilities” to record her voice reports for TV and radio about Brexit when she was working as the London Correspondent for RTÉ.

The highly-respected journalist, who was appointed as RTÉ’s London Correspondent in 2014, was using cafes around London to record her reports during the Brexit controversy because RTÉ had “given up their London office”, according to a statement issued this week by the Broadcasting Branch of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

This occurred at a time when the RTÉ Executive had shelled out in excess of €8,000 over a four-year period for membership of the exclusive Soho House in the same city.

The shock revelation about the working conditions endured by Ms Mitchell while she was working as RTÉ’s London Correspondent were made public by the NUJ after members of the Oireachtas Media Committee listened to over six hours of evidence from the RTÉ Executive and Board on Wednesday of this week during which details of the Soho House membership were outlined.

RTÉ Head of Commercial Geraldine O’Leary told the Oireachtas Committee that the membership of Soho House was in her name and had been renewed on an annual basis since 2019 at a total cost to the broadcaster of €8,316 over a four year period.

Despite the fact that the membership continued during Covid, when international travel was prohibited, Ms O’Leary said it is “appropriate” that RTÉ has “somewhere we can have private negotiations with clients, which is what we do.”

She added that RTÉ previously had “offices in London in Millbank, and previously in Bond Street” and that “depending on the year, approximately 5% of our business comes from the UK.”

Soho House was first opened in London in 1995 and has branches at 40 locations across the globe. Among its most famous members is Britain’s Prince Harry who went on his first date with his future wife, Megan Markle, in 2016 at one of the nine exclusive Soho House locations in London.

The NUJ reacted with fury to the news of the Soho House membership for the Commercial Director of RTÉ, and said it shared “the disgust of the public” at the latest revelations to emerge from the Oireachtas Media Committee hearing this week,

Chair of the NUJ Broadcasting Branch in RTÉ and the station’s Education Correspondent, Emma O’Kelly said “we are hearing about RTÉ paying for the use of a private members club in London.

Meanwhile, the former London Correspondent, Fiona Mitchell, was forced to use cafes around that city as an office to report on Brexit because RTÉ had given up its office in London. Fiona was forced to use toilet facilities in cafes as a quiet space to record her voice for TV and radio reports.”

Ms. O’Kelly said this was “further proof of the ‘them and us’ culture that has operated for so long at RTÉ.”

The NUJ statement spoke of the fury of RTÉ staff and of how they are “incredibly upset and reeling” at the details of the spending on pop concerts and “other hospitality and perks”which had emerged at the Oireachtas Committee hearing and were “sickened” by the revelations.

Fiona Mitchell began her career in RTÉ in 2000 and was appointed to the prestigious post of London Correspondent in 2014.

She became one of the most recognisable faces on TV during the tumultuous Brexit referendum when Britain voted to leave the European Union, and she also repoRTÉd on three major terrorist attacks; the Grenfell Tower fire disaster; two general elections, the arrival of a Royal baby and also the Royal wedding of Prince Harry and Megan Markle.

The daughter of the late Paddy and Phyllis Mitchell from Killeigh, she still works for RTÉ and has returned to make her home in Ireland since her stint as London Correspondent came to an end in 2019.

Meanwhile, RTÉ presenter, Ryan Tubridy and his agent, Noel Kelly, are due to appear before a public session of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday of next week, July 11, at 11am. Committee Chair and Laois/Offaly Sinn Fein TD, Brian Stanley, confirmed to RTÉ yesterday (Thursday) that correspondence had been received from solicitors representing Mr. Tubridy and Mr. Kelly in which they have offered to appear before the PAC and the Oireachtas Media Committee. He said it is “imperative” that all meetings take place “in public” and said he is “looking forward” to hearing what both men have to say.

Meanwhile, Laois/Offaly Independent TD Carol Nolan has written to the Corporate Enforcement Authority (CEA) to seek clarity on the possibility of the authority initiating an investigation into the payments scandal currently engulfing the national broadcaster, RTÉ.

Deputy Nolan said that she saw no reason in principle why the CEA should not do so as a competent statutory authority.

The Independent TD said that it was manifestly clear that there were numerous breaches of good corporate governance at the national broadcaster following revelations that at least €1.25m went through a so-called ‘barter account’ for corporate hospitality.

Nolan said: “The entire reason the CEA was set up was to bring about a greater level of compliance with company law.”