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Articles by R. Cooney
One Communication Competency Is Not One-Size-Fits-All: Rethinking Communication Competency for Older Adults in Emergency Medicine
Communication is recognized as a core professional competency in emergency medicine education [1]. Residency training prepares physicians not only to make timely clinical decisions under uncertainty but also to communicate effectively with patients, families, and interprofessional teams [1, 2]. Within competency-based medical education (CBME), communication should be intentionally developed and assessed across training [3-5].
Web Summit is in freefall. How long can Paddy Cosgrave hold on? - The Currency
Close to 300 of Ireland’s tech community were gathered in a confined space in Dogpatch Labs on Thursday night and in every lull Paddy Cosgrave filled the gap. But this was more than whispered rumours about the flat and dejected atmosphere inside Web Summit, or which high-profile speaker would pull out next.
Board’s big day out: Shouting in a canyon, four RTÉs at Galway Airport, and Saddam Hussein’s approval ratings - The Currency
In the final moments of this Wednesday’s Oireachtas Media Committee hearing on the finances of RTÉ , chair of the committee and Fianna Fáil TD Niamh Smyth went around the house for a mini-CV and vibes check from each of the board members who had not been in session before, including deputy chair of RTÉ and editor of The Currency Ian Kehoe, along with Web Summit co-founder Daire Hickey, RTÉ staff representative Robert Shortt, MIT academic Jonathan Ruane, businesswoman Anne O’Leary, playwright...
Procurement, allowances, taxi vouchers: What a decade of audits tell us about RTÉ - The Currency
On September 9, 2015, the then director-general of RTÉ Noel Curran and members of the state broadcaster’s Audit and Risk Committee received an internal audit report on the organisation’s tendering procedures. Auditors working for the station picked a sample of 35 RTÉ suppliers and found that tendering issues arose in 40 per cent of cases. In half of those problematic contracts, no tender at all had taken place when it was required. Incorrect procedures plagued the other half.
Rising costs, slow advertising and still no remuneration committee meetings: 2022 at RTÉ - The Currency
By all accounts, between war-induced inflation and the re-opening of the economy after the pandemic, 2022 was the year when everybody spent more. RTÉ was no exception, and its annual report just released for last year details €331.1 million in day-to-day costs. “Operating costs, excluding Special Events, increased by €17.1 million year on year as production of both in-house and commissioned programmes returned to pre-Covid level,” the report states – more on this later.
Shedding light on Solar21: Lawyers raise “deeply concerning questions” - The Currency
Simmons and Simmons, the law firm representing certain investors in Solar 21, has raised a series of questions in correspondence exhibited in the High Court with Addleshaw Goddard, the law firm for the troubled energy company. The letters come ahead of an October vote on a scheme of arrangement to restructure certain companies in the business.
The 38 words that undid Ryan Tubridy’s 38-year career - The Currency
Contract negotiations between broadcaster Ryan Tubridy and RTÉ ended dramatically on Thursday night. The decision to halt talks was made by the new director general, Kevin Bakhurst, after it had appeared that a deal was close to being done between the high profile presenter and the state-owned broadcaster. Bakhurst had described these negotiations as at a “delicate stage” only last weekend and predicted that a deal could be done as soon as the end of this week.
Up for air: Tubridy and RTÉ near deal for reduced salary as presenter volunteers return of €150,000 - The Currency
Presenter Ryan Tubridy is in advanced negotiations with RTÉ to accept a salary significantly under €200,000 and return a controversial €150,000 top-up paid to him by the state broadcaster in order to return the airwaves. RTÉ is also prepared to publish the details of his contract with the state broadcaster, as he has volunteered previously to do so publicly. Tubridy’s salary in 2022 was €440,000 but this was the total paid for presenting the weekly Late Late Show and a daily morning radio show.
Fog of war and Nuremberg defence: RTÉ and Tubridy’s conflicting accounts become entrenched - The Currency
Zinging into Leinster House in a midnight blue velour jacket and a spotted green tie, Ryan Tubridy was clear on his message. He is a man who loves a microphone, doesn’t have much of a head for finance or negotiation, respects the Oireachtas deeply and has been treated inhumanely over the past three weeks. Being publicly cancelled, he said, is not something he’d recommend.
Another day in RTÉ’s “darkest episode” reveals futile resistance to Tubridy’s pay demands - The Currency
On the fringes of this Wednesday Oireachtas Media Committee, Geraldine O’Leary, RTÉ’s outgoing chief commercial officer, gave a smarting response to someone who awkwardly wished her well in her retirement. The coverage of her, O’Leary said ignoring the benediction, had been completely unacceptable and a total invasion of privacy. Cutting the conversation at its root, she walked away.
RTÉ tells stars and journalists to disclose all payments, gifts and freebies since 2020 - The Currency
RTÉ has begun to order staff to disclose all payments, goods or other benefits received from commercial partners in the last three years. Sports journalists were asked to fill in lengthy disclosure forms yesterday to be returned by noon on Tuesday, but this is just the start of what will be a process that will cover all on-air journalists and presenters as well as, potentially, contractors.
A U2 concert, a “horrific slush fund” and phantom consultancies: What is new from RTÉ’s PAC hearing - The Currency
It seemed to start off so well for RTÉ. It was a new day, a chance to set the record straight after yesterday’s beating. But once again it was RTÉ’s own bluffing of detail that left executives and board members scrambling as angry TDs, buoyed by intense public interest, continued to lash questions at them hour after hour, in what was a more focused assault by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), then yesterday’s outing in front of the Media Committee.
"There is more information to be uncovered": What we have learned from RTÉ's first hearing - The Currency
It was the first chance for politicians to grill RTÉ over the payments scandal which has thrown the station into disarray. A chance for politicians to get answers to the many questions that have been raised by the trail of statements and drip of information that has dominated the news for the past week. And as independent TD Mattie McGrath asked the RTÉ executives and board members who they had lied to, it seemed the expanse of the Oireachtas Media Committee’s questioning knew no bounds.
RTÉ: Forbes the only member of the Executive Board who "could" have known Tubridy's public salary was wrong - The Currency
“No member of the RTÉ Executive Board, other than the director general, had all the necessary information to understand that the publicly declared figures for Ryan Tubridy could have been wrong.” RTÉ interim DG Adrian Lynch says what occurred was a “breach of trust,” but there was “no illegality.” The interim deputy director of RTÉ Adrian Lynch has issued a nine-page statement setting out the “circumstances” that led to the misstating of Ryan Tubridy’s earning between 2020 and 2022 and...
RTÉ's engineering of secrecy: Anonymous “consultancy fees” and an account “outside” normal controls - The Currency
The Grant Thornton report into secret 2022 payments by RTÉ to its presenter Ryan Tubridy finds they were described as “consultancy fees’” but “on the balance of probabilities” this “did not reflect the substance of the transactions”.
RTÉ probe will stretch back 15 years as Forbes leaves questions dangling - The Currency
The second Grant Thornton report into the top 10 highest earners among on-air presenters on RTÉ will investigate the period from 2008 until 2022, the state broadcaster has said in response to a question from The Currency.
Tubridy apologises as RTÉ comes under intense pressure from its sponsors - The Currency
Pressure is mounting on RTÉ as two major advertisers are in discussions with the national broadcaster over the future of their sponsorship amid the fallout from the scandal over undisclosed payments to its star presenter. Center Parcs, which sponsors Ryan Tubridy’s morning radio show, and Renault, which sponsors The Late Late Show, have expressed concerns to RTÉ over the growing scandal centring around revelations about payments by the station to Tubridy.
What did suspended Dee Forbes know about payments to Tubridy and did she approve them? - The Currency
The silence from Dee Forbes, the outgoing director of RTÉ, has been deafening since the revelations of €345,000 in undisclosed payments to its star presenter Ryan Tubridy. Now we know why. The Currency asked on Thursday what was the status of Forbes’s employment, and the station did not answer. However in a statement this morning it confirmed that Forbes was not “on holiday” as was said on air on RTÉ this morning during its reporting.
RTÉ trade unions request meeting with board over growing pay scandal - The Currency
At a time when RTÉ staff were taking pay cuts and the broadcaster was looking for voluntary redundancies, RTÉ was making secret payments to Ryan Tubridy to top up his salary. RTÉ’s Trade Union Group (TUG) has now come out strongly in response to revelations this Thursday that unofficial payments were made to the broadcaster’s most highly paid presenter, calling it a “breach of trust” and requesting a meeting with the chair of the RTÉ board, Siún Ní Raghallaigh.
Scandal of RTÉ’s disclosure of secret payments to Tubridy raises many questions - The Currency
It was February 15, 2023 and RTÉ director general Dee Forbes was commenting on a new report on the lucrative salaries paid to RTÉ’s highest-paid presenters. The report, according to RTÉ, revealed how the state-owned broadcaster was cramming down the salaries paid to the big fish in the station. Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy was leading the pack – it was claimed – by taking a pay cut of €55,000 or 11 per cent between 2019 and 2021, taking his pay down to €440,000.
An educational haven for Cork's elite is closing after 54 years - The Currency
One of Ireland’s only privately-owned schools and an educational haven for the children of Cork’s elite is set to close as it has struggled to attract pupils in recent years. Rockboro is an atypical primary school in Ballintemple, Cork for children aged 3 to 13. Co-educational, and multi-denominational it is entirely independent of the state and religious orders. Nearly all of its income came from pupils’ fees, which were around €5,000, per child, per year.
Saving Mac-Interiors becomes an attractive proposition for investors - The Currency
A number of parties have expressed an interest in investing in commercial fit-out firm Mac-Interiors Ltd in order to allow the company to exit examinership. A report by the interim examiner, Kieran Wallace of Interpath, completed on June 13, said: “Both the company and I have been approached by several interested parties around the prospect of investing in the organisation.” Wallace said he had provided non-disclosure agreements to all interested parties and issued a process letter.
Ryanair’s chief pilot has been dismissed with immediate effect following investigation - The Currency
The chief pilot of Ryanair has been dismissed from the airline following an investigation which stated a “repeated pattern of inappropriate behaviour”. In an email to all Ryanair team members, Darrell Hughes, Ryanair’s chief people officer, told staff that the chief pilot, who was appointed to the role in 2020, had his employment terminated on Tuesday evening with immediate effect.
Inside Mac Interiors: What went wrong and what is the construction firm's survival plan? - The Currency
An independent expert report prepared by accountancy and consultancy firm EY Parthenon explains in detail why the well-known commercial fit-out firm Mac-Interiors Ltd (MIL) has a “reasonable prospect of survival as a going concern.” An 85-page report also reveals insights into what went wrong in the business and the scale of the issues it is facing on various fronts, including a winding up petition from the Revenue Commissioners.
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