Deirdre Anne Forbes (born 1 February 1967) is an Irish former broadcasting executive, who was the Director General of RTÉ from April 2016 to June 2023.

[4] In June 2023, it emerged that RTÉ paid broadcaster Ryan Tubridy €345,000 more than publicly declared between 2017 and 2022, and incurred additional costs related to that.

Forbes was suspended from her employment a day prior to the public emergence of the controversy and later issued a statement defending her record;[5] she ultimately resigned with immediate effect on 26 June.

She then moved to Discovery's Western European operation, finishing as president and managing director, with 18 markets, 27 television brands and an audience of 270 million households.

[13] A month later, a health and safety review conducted by RTÉ into the gathering found that five breaches of COVID-19 protocols occurred, with up to 40 people present at the time.

The chair of its board said that was a "serious breach of trust with the public",[17] and Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media Catherine Martin said it was unacceptable that the expected standards of transparency and accountability had not been met.

At the same time, we were attempting to retain Ryan Tubridy's services as a valued presenter and negotiate a new contract, with the agreed 15pc cost cutting target in mind."