RTÉ presenter Ryan Tubridy apologized to the Oireachtas, his colleagues and the public for what he called a “fog of confusion” over the payment.
He told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that his decision to step down as host of The Late Late Show was unrelated to controversy as he became aware of the issue in May, months after the announcement.
Mr Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly appeared before the PAC this morning, ahead of separate appearances before the Oireachtas Media Committee.
Mr Tubridy told the PAC he was “particularly upset and disappointed” about RTÉ linking his name to what he described as a “fiasco”, making him “the face of a national scandal”, reports RTE.
RTÉ’s management and financial scrutiny began after it admitted that fees paid to Mr Tubridy were understated by €345,000 over a six-year period.
RTÉ executives later clarified that RTÉ’s Late Late Show sponsor Renault paid €75,000 to Mr Tubridy in a 2020 trilateral deal, but then backed out of the deal.
The two payments of €75,000 made to Mr Tubridy for 2021 and 2022 were made by RTÉ as it guaranteed the amount owed to Mr Tubridy, which DT was told was an oral agreement reached at a Microsoft team meeting in May 2020.
Grant Thornton said RTÉ was investigating the extent to which Mr Tubridy’s 2017-2019 charges went unreported. The report is due next week.
During his opening statement to the PAC, Mr Tubridy rejected the claim that he did not take a pay cut from RTÉ in 2020. “This is not true. I took a pay cut from RTÉ of 20% in 2020 for each of the five years of my contract, at a cost of €525,000 to me over the length of that contract,” he told the committee, reports RTE.
Disputing Mr Tubridy’s claim, Labour’s Alan Kelly said there was no 20% pay cut and the claim was nil, citing the income from his Renault contract which was covered by RTÉ.
Mr Tubridy denied claims he was overpaid by RTÉ. He said he “paid fully in accordance with my contract, which my agent negotiated openly, honestly and in good faith,” reports RTE.
“There are no over-payments,” he insisted, reports RTE.
Mr Tubridy then claimed that he was unaware that RTÉ was “concealing payments” to him. He noted that RTÉ acknowledged this in their June 27 statement, when they “stated that Grant Thornton had made no findings against me”, reports RTE.
In addition, Mr Tubridy said he had not accepted the €120,000 loyalty payment.
Ryan Tubridy’s agent Noel Kelly also appeared before the committee and said Mr Tubridy “has been made the poster boy for this scandal”, reports RTE.
In his opening statement to the PAC, Mr Kelly said it was the worst period and added that it was not the Ryan Tubridy scandal, but the RTÉ scandal.
As for the deal with Renault, Mr Kelly said it was perhaps the most surprising revelation, along with RTÉ’s decision to secure it.
In a statement, RTÉ questioned the interpretation of the February 2020 email by Mr Kelly and Mr Tubridy.
“RTÉ does not accept this characterisation. RTÉ’s position is that the email of 20 February 2020 formed part of the discussions and engagement between it and NK Management in relation to the proposed new TV and radio contract with Mr Tubridy/Tuttle Productions and did not comprise a binding legal or contractual commitment on its part. RTÉ’s position is as per previous statements: that, until the verbal commitment given by the former Director General during the call on 7 May 2020, it had not agreed to underwrite the €75,000 payment per contract year,” reports RTE.
New documents provided to PAC by RTÉ show that four people attended a meeting in May 2021 where RTÉ agreed to sign a trilateral agreement between Renault and Mr Tubridy.
The letter from the RTÉ Law Office dated April 19, 2023 referred to the video meeting of May 7, 2021.
Mrs. Forbes, Mr. Kelly, an anonymous lawyer, and a fourth person whose name has been redacted are said to have attended.
The letter goes onto state: “It was confirmed at that meeting by Dee Forbes on behalf of RTÉ that in consideration of the new agreement, RTÉ guarantees the payments required to be made by Renault under the tripartite agreement and indemnifies Tuttle Productions Limited [Ryan Tubridy’s company] in relation to these payments for the duration of the contract,” reports RTE.
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