My first reaction when I heard the Marty Morrissey “controversy” broke was “say it ain’t so, Joe”.
My second reaction was one of puzzlement about the alleged wrong of which Mary Morrissey is accused, and which has prompted howls of outrage from many quarters in Irish society.
According to Morrissey he did 7 unpaid gigs for Renault Ireland and they gave him the loan of a car from 2017.
So what?
Is Morrissey even an employee of RTE? Or is he, like many others, an independent contractor providing services to RTE?
Regardless of his status, how was the loan of a car from Renault in breach of any duty to RTE, and we don’t even know if RTE was his employer or not.
We know from the Dee Forbes letter to Ryan Tubridy that the contract is one “for services”, not “of service”. This means Tubridy is an independent, self-employed contractor.
Just like many of us.
Turning back to Morrissey, did the Renault car loan from 2017 mean his commentary was hopelessly compromised? Did he favour one county over another and deliver unprofessional, subjective, biased reports?
What duty, if any, did he breach in respect of RTE who may or may not be his employer?
If I had an employee client who was disciplined by his employer for accepting the loan of a car, or anything else, from a commercial entity and it had no bearing on the employee’s work I would be writing to the employer.
Morrissey is almost certainly self-employed, and an independent contractor. What is the wrong in the loan of a car from Renault?
If Morrissey is an employee, how is it even RTE’s business if it had no impact on his work and he was not compromised or conflicted?