Gavan Reilly: Yes, she was wronged - but the minister’s judgement is lacking

I should be relieved, really. For a few days there, I was genuinely at a loss as to what this week’s column should be about. Then, like manna from the editorial gods, Siún Ní Raghallaign’s 2300-word epic drops into the inbox, and the lid is torn back off a can of worms that the minister was perfectly happy to leave curdling on the shelf.

At this stage, you don’t need the most explosive details that statement rehashed – except to say that Ni Raghallaigh believed Catherine Martin wanted her gone, and that she went ahead with her appearance on Prime Time because “a plot was afoot” to get rid of her.

To put it simply, there is no way that this perception can be consistent with the minister’s own testimony, delivered at almost tedious length and with infuriating repetition at the Oireachtas media committee last Tuesday. There, Martin told members she was keen to clear the air with the RTÉ chair, had tried her best not to throw her under a bus on Prime Time, and was hoping the situation could still be salvaged. Though she’d been misled about internal affairs at the broadcaster, she didn’t think it was intentional - and that she hoped Ni Raghallaigh’s threat to resign, over a written scolding, was a hot-headed movement of impulsiveness that would not be acted on.

Her appearance before that committee was largely going to put the story to bed because Martin had, at least, hammered home an important point. The chair is the only person in RTÉ who can answer to the government; it is therefore vital that the chair deliver correct information when asked, and Ní Raghallaigh’s failure presented a problem. The wolves went back into their lair: it was hard to defend the chair’s position when presented with such a black-and-white picture.

But last week’s committee animated another question - one given a shot in the arm by Ní Raghallaigh’s fiery missive on Monday: does the minister have her head screwed on at all?

Take the minister at her word; yes, she has been misled, but she doesn’t think it was a resigning offence… so why did she wait until two hours before a TV appearance (which she really should have abandoned) to try and set up a meeting? Why did not pick up the phone at literally any point during the day and have a precursory chat? Why, if going out to RTÉ anyway, pre-signal to the chair that the matter might come up? Why, on arrival, hand RTÉ a story they didn’t already have, and tell them she’d take questions on it?

And why did she apparently think she could sit in front of Miriam O’Callaghan, tell that whole story, and not be asked if she had confidence in Ní Raghallaigh?

Martin got out the gap last week because the meeting opened with questions about her actions, and ended with different questions about her political judgement. The latter was not destined to be a fatal issue, and the story was going to drift on. Now, nobody can be so sure.

- Gavan Reilly is Political Correspondent with Virgin Media News and Political Columnist for the Meath Chronicle - Column first appeared in last Tuesday's paper.