RTÉ PRESENTER RYAN Tubridy is still being paid while a new contract is negotiated for him following his departure from The Late Late Show.
RTÉ executives are appearing before the Oireachtas Media Committee this afternoon in relation to the underreporting of Tubridy’s salary by €345,000 over six years.
Interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch told the committee that these negotiations are currently suspended.
Responding to questions from independent TD Peter Fitzpatrick, Lynch said Tubridy is being paid while the contract talks are on hold.
Lynch went on to say that Tubridy’s previous contract, which covered his TV and radio roles, concluded on 31 May.
Interim Deputy Director-General Adrian Lynch told Independent TD Peter Fitzpatrick that Ryan Tubridy is being paid while negotiations are suspended | Live updates https://t.co/y0sVdO04oe pic.twitter.com/QJO7YybDWE
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) June 28, 2023
Tubridy announced in March that he would be stepping down as host of The Late Late Show. Lynch said: “From what I can see in terms of the timeline, there is no relationship between these payments and the decision to step down from the Late Late Show.”
Tubridy has also denied that the matter was a factor in his stepping down.
Tubridy’s annual earnings as published by RTÉ between the years 2017-2022 ranged from €440,000-€491,667 but a review carried out by Grant Thornton found that his annual earnings from RTÉ in those years actually ranged from €511,667-€545,000.
The issue was partly the result of a deal which saw Tubridy receive additional income from commercial partner Renault, with that income guaranteed and underwritten by RTÉ. The manner in which these payments were recorded led to an understatement of his earnings, with RTÉ apologising for the mistake. Tubridy himself apologised on Friday for “not questioning” the published figures.
Lynch insisted he knew “absolutely nothing” about RTÉ underpinning the payments as part of the initial tripartite deal between the broadcaster, Renault and Tubridy’s agent.
The deal with Renault ceased on 31 December 2021, leaving RTÉ liable to pay Tubridy the additional income.
Lynch continued: “Money was paid directly from RTE to Ryan Tubridy, and that then impacted the account we published.”
He added: “I knew absolutely nothing about that. I can say that hand on heart. I had no idea that a guarantee had been given regarding this arrangement.”
He said the current executive board was prepared to “own” the issues that have emerged.
“As an exec board, we totally recognise that there has been a serious breach of corporate governance here and lack of transparency, and completely own that,” he said.
Independent TD Peter Fitzpatrick said he could not understand how only Dee Forbes knew about the misreporting of the payments.
“Let’s call a spade a spade, Dee Forbes is being thrown under a bus here,” he said.
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