WITH JUST OVER a week gone by since it was first revealed that RTÉ failed to disclose payments worth €345,000 to Ryan Tubridy since 2017, executives at the broadcaster have been furnished with a list of documents to be provided to the Public Accounts Committee for scrutiny.
Senior RTÉ officials appeared before the committee yesterday afternoon, where TDs pushed them on the circumstances surrounding how the payments were made and who had access to information.
The committee has requested copies of all of RTÉ’s bank accounts and of barter accounts going back 20 years, as well as Tubridy’s previous five-year contract and the arrangement with the barter company.
RTÉ has also been asked to provide details of any “pension top-ups” or other benefits, a full list of all talent agents that have done contracts with RTÉ (including whether any talent agents have any shares or ownership of any shows contracted by RTÉ) and a full list of all payments and tickets (in relation to expenditure in the barter account) and where they were divulged to.
Significant lines of questioning yesterday focused on the labelling of invoices as “consultancy fees”.
RTÉ had agreed to underwrite a Renault sponsorship of Tubridy (in exchange for not paying an ‘exit fee’ that had previously been in his contract), which meant that if events which Renault was due to pay Tubridy to attend did not go ahead, RTÉ would pay the presenter the amount.
RTÉ made two such payments to Tubridy of €75,000, but the invoices were labelled as consultancy fees.
Chief Financial Officer Richard Collins told the committee yesterday that the Director General, Dee Forbes, told him the fees were for consultancy services provided by Tubridy’s agent, Noel Kelly, during the pandemic.
When pushed on whether he questioned that reason, Collins said that the Director General gave what appeared to be a “plausible” explanation.
Commercial Director Geraldine O’Leary said she could not remember whether it was Dee Forbes or Noel Kelly who put forward the label of consultancy fees. Director of Legal Affairs Paula Mullooly accepted that the labelling was “highly inappropriate”.
Later in the evening, RTÉ Investigates on Prime Time reported that Forbes initially said that the invoices labelled as “consultancy fees” were work done for RTÉ by Kelly, who represents Ryan Tubridy and a number of RTÉ figures.
RTÉ Investigates reported that when Forbes was first asked about invoices labelled as consultancy fees, she said they were bills from Kelly at a rate of €1,200 per hour, but that she subsequently revised her explanation.
Barter account
The payments were made through a barter account, a type of account used to record the exchange of goods or services for other goods or services.
Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon asked the representatives what else the barter account was used for.
Commercial Director Geraldine O’Leary said the account was used to pay for clients to go to the Rugby World Cup. She said she could not name those clients without their permission.
O’Leary herself, one of her colleagues and four guests went on that trip. O’Leary said it is “not unusual” for commercial to host clients at events.
The committee heard that €138,000 was spent on ten-year IRFU season tickets, while €26,000 related to the 2019 Champions League final.
When Dillon asked where the money came from, O’Leary said: “I have no direct recall.”
O’Leary told the committee that there was no credit card connected to the barter account.
Chief financial officer Richard Collins said that payments are made out of the barter account by giving instruction to the barter company that operates the account.
Fianna Fáil TD Colm Burke asked how much money has gone through the barter account in the last ten years.
Collins said between €1 million and €1.5 million.
Ryan Tubridy
TD Alan Kelly sought to establish what contract Ryan Tubridy is currently under following his departure from The Late Late Show but continued presence on radio (until this week).
RTÉ’s legal director Paula Mullooly said she does not believe Tubridy has a written contract at the moment to present his radio programme.
“There may be an oral agreement as to what he’s being paid,” she said.
Interim Deputy Director General Adrian Lynch confirmed previously that Tubridy is still being paid while he is off-air.
Tubridy resigned from his role as host of the Late Late Show in mid-March this year but continued to present his radio show on RTÉ each weekday morning.
However, he has not been on air since the revelations emerged late last week.
Lynch told the Media Committee on Wednesday: “At the moment, obviously, for editorial reasons, it’s impossible for Ryan Tubridy to be back on air.”
Meanwhile, Center Parcs, which sponsors the show, has told RTÉ that it will not be renewing its sponsorship when its current contract runs out later this year.
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