Presenter Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly will join two committees next week to discuss paid non-disclosure on RTÉ.
They will appear before the Dáil Public Accounts Commission (PAC) on Tuesday at 11.30am. Later that day at 3:00 p.m., they will appear before the Oireachtas Media Commission for three hours.
RTÉ’s director and board appeared before PAC on Thursday, reports RTE.
Last month, the broadcaster admitted that over the years it had paid Tubridy tens of thousands of euros more than it had declared to the public and the Oireachtas.
RTÉ’s management said he received payments totaling €345,000 between 2017 and 2022 on top of his annual published salary.
Mr Tubridy subsequently apologized unreservedly for not asking questions as to why the company had published his incorrect earnings figures, reports RTE.
He said he was disappointed that RTÉ decided he should not air on radio for editorial reasons, but was looking forward to returning to the show as soon as possible.
In his statement, Mr Tubridy said: “While I have no responsibility for the corporate governance in RTÉ or how or what they publish in their accounts, when my earnings were published I should have asked questions at the time and sought answers as to the circumstances which resulted in incorrect figures being published. I didn’t, and I bear responsibility for my failure to do so. For this, I apologise unreservedly,’ reports RTE.
The RTÉ debate intensified when the government announced two reviews this week on the national broadcaster.
The first review will make recommendations for building stronger governance structures and reforming the organizational culture at RTÉ. The second will investigate how RTÉ’s external contractors were paid.
Media Minister Catherine Martin said RTÉ’s external review was aimed at rebuilding trust among both the public and staff and ensuring the government was getting the answers it needed.
In her opening statement yesterday afternoon, RTÉ’s board chairman, Seún Ní Raghalaigh, said the controversy over non-disclosure of payments was the darkest episode in RTÉ’s history”, reports RTE.
Mr Stanley said the chairman of RTE’s comment board revealed the fact that the gulf between the two organizations was “wide as a barn door”.
“What that shows is that you can’t operate a commercial company where there isn’t a joined up relationship between the oversight board and the actual employees, the managers at the top. It is totally dysfunctional. “You want to keep them accountable and that means keeping them on the payroll unfortunately, keeping them as employees of it but they do need to step to one side straight away. That is the minimum that is required here,” he said, reports RTE.
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