From top: Terry Prone, Fr Kevin Reynolds and Tom Savage

On May 9, 2012, RTE board chairman Tom Savage, told Newstalk he did not learn of the controversy surrounding the Mission To Prey programme until September 2011 – three months after Fr Kevin Reynolds started to take legal action and four months after his own PR firm (The Communications Clinic) was apparently employed to deal with the fall out from the show’s findings.

He also told an Oireachtas Committee meeting: “(The RTE board)  did not know until the evidence came that the first paternity test had shown that Fr Reynolds was not the parent. That was when we were informed. I was informed just in the lead-in to the September board meeting.”

Which makes this fairly stunning:

The assistance given to Fr Reynolds was not previously disclosed by Ms Prone, who only admitted aiding an umbrella group of Irish missionaries.

This initial disclosure prompted questions about her husband’s knowledge about the early stages of the Fr Reynolds affair. Ms Prone insisted she never discussed the Fr Kevin Reynolds issue with him.

But according to Fr Reynolds, Ms Prone — who runs the Communications Clinic with her husband — agreed to assist the priest with a statement days after the broadcast of the infamous ‘Prime Time Mission to Prey’ programme.

*thud*

Fr Reynolds says Prone Personally Helped Him Draft Response To RTE (Barry Duggan, Irish Independent)

Previously: Was The Communications Clinic Hired To Deal With Mission To Prey Before It Was Even Broadcast?

(Photocall ireland)

Tom Savage and Terry Prone during Friday’s Late Late Show 50th Anniversary.

RTE chairman Tom Savage remains unaware of any potential conflicts of interest that may arise through his directorship of The Communications Clinic because his wife Terry Prone does not tell him.

…Ms Prone told the Sunday Independent yesterday that her husband, a former priest, only found out this week that his company trained the Irish Missionary Union to deal with the potential fallout from the Mission To Prey broadcast.

The TV personality said she did not see how people could perceive a conflict of interest from the IMU training or from services that their media-relations company might provide to RTE broadcasters.

Ms Prone commented: “People could perceive that I had three ears and a tail but that doesn’t make it fact.”

 

Tom Savage Needs To tell Us Why This Is Not A Conflict Of Interest (Philip Ryan, Sunday Independent)

Time To Sharpen Canines On Media Conflicts Of Interest (Elaine Byrne, Sunday Independent)

Previously: Was The Communications Clinic Hired To Deal Wth Mission To Prey Before It Was Even Broadcast?

Apparently so.

On Monday, May 16, the Irish Missionaries Union circulated its Strategic Plan 2011- 2014 to its members.

In it, the IMU said it was preparing for an RTE expose (Mission to Prey). It also said it planned to hold a workshop for members to deal with the expected fallout from the RTE show.

This was exactly a week before RTE Prime Time Investigates aired Mission to Prey, on Monday, May 23,

A day before the broadcast, on Sunday, May 22, the Sunday Business Post wrote a story about the document but added details of how Terry Prone (above), a director of The Communications Clinic – and the wife of RTE Board chairman Tom Savage (top), also a director of The Communications Clinic – was hired by the IMU in advance of the Mission to Prey broadcast.

The SBP article (behind paywall) said: “The body representing Irish Catholic missionary congregations is developing a strategy to prepare its members for an onslaught of allegations of sexual abuse. The Irish Missionary Union (IMU) is understood to have hired several public relations experts, including Terry Prone, to manage the fallout from an RTE Prime Time documentary, to be screened this week, about allegations of sexual abuse by Irish priests in Africa.”

On Monday, May 23, RTE broadcast Mission to Prey, despite offers by Fr Reynolds to take a paternity test to prove his innocence.

On September 22, 2011, the High Court heard how two paternity tests showed Fr Reynolds was not the father of the woman’s child, ultimately leading to Fr Reynold’s vindication.

On May 9, 2012, Tom Savage, told Newstalk he did not learn of the controversy surrounding the Mission To Prey programme until September 2011 – three months after Fr Reynolds started to take legal action and four months after his own PR firm was apparently employed to deal with the fall out from the show’s findings.

He said: “When we were told at our September board meeting. Because obviously if you are dealing with a huge organisation like RTE, with so much output in so many areas, the board is never informed on an ongoing basis of every single issue that crops up. And it tends to be that only when problems emerge and they’re either raised directly with the board or they’re raised through the Director General’s report that comes to us at the board meeting, the first item on the board meeting, that we have each month, we heard about it in September.”

Mr Savage also told an Oireachtas Committee meeting last week: “(The RTE board)  did not know until the evidence came that the first paternity test had shown that Fr Reynolds was not the parent. That was when we were informed. I was informed just in the lead-in to the September board meeting.”

(Laura Hutton and Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland)