One simple promise made to Dee Forbes as TWO Oireachtas interrogation committees finally confirm their plans - after the scandal-plagued ex RTÉ boss was seen socialising in a West Cork beer garden

By JOHN DRENNAN and COLM MCGUIRK Published: 15:35, 17 August 2026 | Updated: 15:44, 17 August 2026 TWO Oireachtas committees have confirmed they will renew efforts to cross-examine former RTÉ director general Dee Forbes when the Dáil returns next month. Members of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Media Committee said they will again invite Ms Forbes to appear before them after the Irish Mail on Sunday recently published photographs of the former RTÉ boss socialising outside a West Cork pub in the sun. The former director general presided over the national broadcaster during a period of secret payments, hidden accounts, and lavish corporate spending. However, she has refused to answer questions about her role since 2023. Ms Forbes was initially expected to appear before the PAC and Media Committee but cited ill-health and then disappeared from public view. Ms Forbes, 59, has never answered any questions about the numerous scandals which resulted from her tenure. She has continued to cite ill-health as her reason for not appearing before Dáil committees to answer questions about her part in RTÉ’s biggest-ever financial crisis. Ms Forbes has also refused an offer by Oireachtas committees to submit a written account of her role in the various scandals, the effects of which continue to reverberate in RTÉ. Her lawyers told the Media Committee in November 2025 their client was ‘not fit or able’ to attend – even by video link – and remained ‘under active medical care’. Members of the Media Committee this weekend revealed that they had considered ‘sending a request [to Ms Forbes] before the summer recess’. But one committee source said: ‘In the absence of any update on her health status, there were concerns we would be seen as harassing her. ‘It was a decision that was very marginal, but concerns that we could be made vulnerable to an Angela Kerins [the former Rehab CEO who took a High Court action over her treatment at the PAC] style of judgement swayed the decision not to write.’ However, the committee sources said that the mood among members ‘hardened’ after a tanned Forbes was spotted twice at Hayes’s gastropub in Glandore, near her home in West Cork, meeting and laughing with friends. Dee Forbes enjoying the sun in a West Cork beer garden last month One source told the MoS: ‘Even though we unanimously agreed not to contact Ms Forbes, some – such as the chair [Labour TD Alan Kelly] and [Fine Gael TD] Michael Carrigy – were less happy than others. ‘Their positions and the views of others will have hardened a lot after that photo-shoot.’ Longford-Westmeath TD Carrigy told the MoS this weekend: ‘Calling in Ms Forbes will be the first item in the agenda in our first meeting when the Dáil returns.’ Oireachtas committee members want to question the ex RTÉ boss in relation to several financial and governance controversies that unfolded during her tenure. These emerged after the scandal involving secret payments to former Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy broke in June 2023, the same month Ms Forbes resigned as director general. Mr Carrigy said there is still ‘very much an unfinished piece of work’ in relation to the RTÉ controversies, adding: ‘RTÉ, no one, can move on until it is resolved.’ He added: ‘Hopefully her health will allow her to engage… I have had the secretariat work on a number of options.’ Citing the Supreme Court judgement that strongly criticised the PAC for its treatment of Angela Kerins in 2014, the Fine Gael TD said: ‘We are very mindful of the Kerins judgement. There will be no rush to judgment in our questions.’ PAC chair John Brady, who previously told the Mail on Sunday that ‘an investigation without the former director general is like Hamlet without the Prince’ also confirmed he will ‘be raising the issue of calling Ms Forbes when the Dáil returns’. The Sinn Féin TD also stressed Ms Forbes would get a fair hearing. Sinn Féin TD John Brady has stressed that Ms Forbes would get a fair hearing He told the MoS: ‘She has an opportunity to end the consistent ongoing reputational damage being done to RTÉ, and to restore her own credibility. ‘We have unanswered questions but we have an open mind, we have an opportunity, and she has an opportunity.’ The Wicklow TD added: ‘It is good that the [MoS] pictures appear to show she is in better form.’ However, fellow PAC member Aidan Farrelly was less optimistic, noting: ‘One of the biggest frustrations about being a member of the PAC is pretty much week-in, week-out, people who come to us to discuss issues that have happened in the last year, 18 months, two years, were not in that post. ‘So they can’t answer directly the questions that we have, because the previous person has moved on. It is an easy out.’ The Social Democrats TD said that, in the case of RTÉ: ‘When [current director general] Kevin Bakhurst was in before the PAC, that smacked of the same tone, whereby he was very forward-focused in terms of the reforms that are happening, in terms of the cost-saving measures. ‘But he was quick to tell us how RTÉ is not “a tin pot organisation” and stood over the nature of the taxi and limousine expenses, as an example of necessary expenditure RTÉ still needs to provide.’ The Kildare North TD said ‘a lot of people would still have a lot of questions’ in relation to financial and governance scandals and ‘the overall culture of RTÉ’ during Ms Forbes’s tenure. Ms Forbes, 59, has never answered any questions about the numerous scandals which resulted from her tenure He told the MoS: ‘We’ve heard from many of those who were there at the time, but obviously we haven’t heard from the former director general. ‘I would certainly welcome Ms Forbes into the Public Accounts Committee at any time, and I’m sure that invite still stands. ‘But I think, given that she’s not been part of the organisation for a significant period of time, and I’m sure is moving on in both a personal and a professional capacity, that I’m not sure we’ll see that come to fruition.’ He adds, ‘I wouldn’t be holding my breath…’ Asked if there was a mechanism to compel Ms Forbes, Deputy Farrelly said: ‘The compellability power for the Public Accounts Committee is a rarely used mechanism, and even if it were used, RTÉ at the time were not audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General, so that would dilute that. ‘Obviously, given that Ms Forbes is no longer an employee it’s difficult, so I wouldn’t be calling for the compellability powers to be used in this instance. ‘I think when we use that as a committee, we need to really make sure that is for issues that are achievable, and I wouldn’t be sure this one is.’ A spokesman for Ms Forbes declined to comment when asked if she would appear before the Oireachtas committees in future. 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