RYAN TUBRIDY WAS “shocked and disappointed” when he heard he would not be returning to the national broadcaster’s airwaves, RTE’s director general Kevin Bakhurst has said.
Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland radio programme this morning, Bakhurst explained his decision not to bring Tubridy back on air, saying that the star presenter had not accepted his fair share of the blame in the undisclosed payments scandal.
Tubridy was suspended from presenting his radio show on 22 June after it emerged that RTE had failed to disclose the full amount he was being paid. The scandal has plagued the broadcaster since then.
On the radio this morning, Bakhurst said that it had been a difficult decision to make and that he believed Tubridy to be “a hugely talented broadcaster”.
What brought negotiations over his return to the airwaves to an abrupt end yesterday though was Tubridy’s release of a statement on Wednesday in which he maintained that his income from RTE in 2020 and 2021 matched what was originally published.
This, according to Bakhurst, represented a failure on Tubridy’s part to take responsibility for his part in the scandal and seems to have been the tipping point that led to the termination of negotiations.
“I wanted to be fair, and I want to do the right thing for the audience and the right thing for RTE and for Ryan,” said Bakhurst.
“However, I feel there was an issue throughout about the need to accept your role in what has been a hugely damaging scandal for everybody involved, particularly for RTE, who need to take the vast majority of the blame, but there are others, including Ryan and his team, who should take some of the blame and take some responsibility.”
The new director general said that the prospect to Tubridy’s return had caused a divide in opinion amongst RTE staff, something he believes the presenter was not aware of.
“I don’t think he also was aware that there was significant resistance in parts of the organisation to him coming back.”
Asked if he had consulted with the interim leadership group at RTE, Bakhurst said he had consulted a number of them but that some were on leave. He said that while the decision was not easy, they agreed it was the correct course of action.
“We’ve got a job to do to take this organisation forward and to rebuild trust with audiences and no individual can get in the way of us doing that,” he said.
He also said that he didn’t think Tubridy had seen the decision coming and that he seemed “shocked and disappointed” when told over the phone.
The next step for the director general is to decide on how to go about ending payments to Tubridy, who has been paid at a reduced rate over the summer while suspended. There is also the possibility that Tubridy will take legal action against RTE, Bakhurst said.
There continues to be some ambiguity around the status of Tubridy’s contract as he was originally employed as host of his radio show and The Late Late Show, but left his TV role earlier this year.
“Clearly there was some discussion about whether he’d left that contract or not. And I don’t think there’s agreement on that,” Bakhurst said.
On the prospect of Tubridy taking legal action over the termination of his contract, Bakhurst said it was “always a risk”.
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