GERRY RYAN occasionally took cocaine while at work in RTÉ in order to help him through his three-hour radio show every day, it is claimed in many papers this morning.

The Irish Mail on Sunday claims that the DJ, who died in April, was known by many in RTÉ to have been a regular cocaine user, though the star had striven to hide his habit “pretty well”, covering it with the use of champagne and valium.

It also quotes a former colleague of Ryan’s, 4fm broadcaster Gareth O’Callaghan, who claimed that Ryan’s cocaine use was “widely known in both RTÉ Radio 1 and 2fm”.

The star would apparently pay “over the odds” for the volume of the drug he would use, it claims, in order to keep his habit a secret.

Nonetheless, it adds, the broadcaster’s drug supplier attended his funeral – a dealer the Sunday Times claims that a Garda inquiry into Ryan’s death failed to identify.

The Times says Ryan had promised his partner Melanie Verwoerd that he would not use the drug while they were together, and quotes Eamon Dunphy who suggested Ryan was too “sensible” to use the drug on a regular basis.

It is suggested in a number of papers that the inquest’s findings could have implications for Ryan’s life assurance policies, which may now decline to pay out given the apparent role of illegal drugs in his death.

Confirmation of Ryan’s cocaine use came on Friday when an inquest into his death found traces of the drug in his bloodstream, and returned a verdict of death by misadventure.