Curran offered resignation in wake of paternity test
The director-general of RTE Noel Curran offered his resignation to the board of the State broadcasting service after a paternity test proved Fr Kevin Reynolds did not father a child by an African girl as alleged in the now-notorious Prime Time Investigates programme A Mission to Prey.
The Sunday Independent can confirm that the RTE board "firmly rejected" the director-general's offer to resign from his €250,000-a-year post.
The development has come to light as a videotape has emerged of Mr Curran addressing a group of "very vocal" staff in the RTE newsroom at a tumultuous meeting as pressure mounts for those responsible to step down.
In the video Mr Curran is seen being confronted by high-profile and respected figures in the station. RTE industrial relations correspondent Ingrid Miley is seen to tell Mr Curran that she was embarrassed and ashamed at how the organisation had handled the Fr Reynolds disaster.
Her comments were met by a thunderous round of applause by newsroom staff.
Mr Curran addressed the newsroom on Thursday as the State broadcaster was thrown into the biggest crisis in its history by the debacle.
Five people are believed to have been involved in the production of Prime Time Investigates: A Mission To Prey, which is now believed to have cost RTE up to €2m in damages and legal fees and badly dented its credibility. They are Aoife Kavanagh, who presented the programme; Brian Pairceir, executive producer; Ken O'Shea, the editor of Prime Time Investigates; and Ed Mulhall, head of news and current affairs. A fifth man, Mark Lappin, who produced the programme, has since left RTE and is working for CNN.
This weekend a spokesperson confirmed Mr Curran's offer of resignation: "When the results of the DNA paternity test of Fr Kevin Reynolds in the Prime Time Investigates case became known to RTE, DG Noel Curran as editor-in-chief of RTE stated to RTE board chairman Tom Savage that he was prepared to step down from his post.
"This was in recognition of the gravity of the error made by the programme and of the injury done to Fr Reynolds, and notwithstanding that the decision to broadcast the programme was, as is normal in RTE, made at divisional rather than corporate level.
"The offer was firmly rejected by the chairman on the basis that Mr Curran was not involved in the decision-making process on the programme. It was agreed that the imperative was for the DG as chief executive and editor-in-chief to lead the internal investigation into how the programme was originated, prepared and produced for air in a defamatory form.
"The activity set in train by Mr Curran at that time, involving internal reviews and an external independent review carried out by Prof essor John Horgan, will be completed ahead of the December 15 meeting of the RTE board and recommendations by the director-general will be made to the board at that time."
The spokesperson added: "Noel Curran acknowledged this in response to questions at a staff briefing in the newsroom on Thursday last."
Another source explained: "She [Ingrid Miley] was very vocal and told Mr Curran that management had weeks to prepare for the fallout from this and that they should have had a plan ready on how to deal with the crisis, but that now it looks like RTE has been caught off-guard.
"During the meeting Mr Curran also acknowledged that he regretted not going to Mary Wilson's Drivetime programme to talk about the fallout from the incident. Instead of Curran, head of communications Kevin Dawson appeared on the show."
- NIAMH HORAN
Originally published in
