I worked for RTÉ for 17 years, from 1988 to 2005. I feel the time is appropriate for me to tell a story here that I have never told before. 

For me, it is a reminder that back in 2005 I predicted what is now being played out within the corridors of the national broadcaster. We are watching a blame game unfolding, a witch hunt, a disgusting display of avarice and pure disregard in a sequence of unfolding events that border on incredulous.

A blame game is a sequence of digressive strategies, capable of changing the direction of blame. In this case the RTÉ board’s easiest target was the director general, Dee Forbes, who was suspended last week, and who then resigned. 

Suspending her was nothing less than cowardly and despicable on the part of RTÉ. What about the other senior executives who were present that day when the Tubridy barter deal was signed off? Where are they, and why weren’t they suspended? 

Forbes has been unfairly targeted here; she is the one who has paid the heaviest price for the cowardly behaviour of those who have laid the blame at her feet.

The greatest lesson I learned from Gay Byrne, who I worked closely with for three years in the 1990s, was that if you deceive your listeners who invite you into their lives every day, if you deliberately cause them to believe something that is not true, especially for personal gain, you will lose their trust and respect forever. 

If you rip off their belief and their faith by turning out not to be the bona fide, genuine person they always sought you out for, then you will no longer have a place in their lives.

Gay never discussed salary.  He felt such money topics were vulgar and best kept private. His commitment was to his listeners, nothing else. He was a broadcaster to the core. 

So when he was embezzled out of more than quarter of a million pounds by his accountant and friend Russell Murphy, the public became aware for the first time of his earnings. If anything, his financial losses made him even more popular. Gay’s income was deserved in the eyes of his loyal listeners.

Roll on the years, and this week the nation is watching a rolling account unfold, with all the force of a car crash, of Ryan Tubridy’s income and how he got it. He has talked much about his friendship with Gay Byrne. 

Clearly, Tubridy never discussed his intricate financial affairs with him. 

During the years I worked with Gay, his advice was like a wake-up for your career. 

“Do that once and you’re history,” he would often say when I might suggest a new slant on how to cover an old topic. Clearly, Ryan Tubridy never heard those words from the man he often credits.

Gay Byrne never employed an agent to manage his radio or television affairs. He did it all himself. According to John Caden, the original producer of The Gay Byrne Show, “it takes exceptional political and career management skills to stay at the top for 40 years... And Byrne did it by staying aloof from the management while staying closely in touch with his audience".

In my own case, I felt I had no option but to leave RTÉ in 2005 after I became a pawn in the RTÉ blame game. I believe that I too was scapegoated. 

Back then, I was presenting an afternoon radio show on 2FM. I was working alone on the show, with little support. I was effectively my own producer, unless I was presenting an outside broadcast, when I would have additional backup. I was also left to make many editorial decisions myself, which I shouldn’t have had to.

On this particular day in May, I made a decision not to broadcast from a roadcaster because I believed the sound quality was very poor. I offered to do the show from the Cork studio.

The following Monday I was called to a meeting to account for my actions. I felt betrayed. The following week, I resigned from RTÉ. 

I was asked to reconsider. I was bringing in the second-highest commercial revenue on the radio station after the Gerry Ryan show. They even offered me some time off to take a break. I told them I didn’t need a break. I needed to get as far away from this culture as I could. 

With all the shocking news that has been unfolding in RTÉ in recent days comes a sense of relief that I left when I did. I’m not surprised by what I have been reading. 

My support is with those dedicated individuals, the researchers and producers, and the journalists — the real stars behind the scenes, who turn these radio shows into the masterful broadcasts they become, day in, day out. Without all the research, the typed-up interview briefings, the written introductions that make the presenters sound on top of their game, the booking of programme guests, the endless cups of tea and coffee, and the constant massaging of the stars’ egos, it would be a different story. 

In her recent statement, Miriam O’Callaghan said: “I love RTÉ — it’s a wonderful place to work. It’s full of superb people who work very hard and conscientiously every day to deliver good programmes.” 

I spent 17 years working for RTÉ, and it is not a wonderful place to work. It wasn’t when I worked there, and it most certainly isn’t now. 

When you have a researcher putting in up to 10 hours a day (and often many hours of what should be their rest time across weekends) in order to meet deadlines, on a take-home wage of less that €400 a week, working for a presenter who earns 20 times that amount — a star who presents a one-hour radio show, half of which is just observations and jaunty waffle, that’s not a wonderful place to work.

Tubridy’s radio show is 53 minutes long. He has a dedicated team of six. This week he betrayed his team, his work colleagues, and his listeners and viewers who welcomed him into their homes. You can't have secret financial deals for your own personal gain, and then try to pawn off the blame for not being able to account publicly for them when you get caught.

It’s time that RTÉ stopped paying these salaries. They are personalities, not surgeons. Back in 2002, RTÉ paid Gerry Ryan €601,882. The broadcaster’s top 10 earners that year netted a combined total of €2.52m. That was 21 years ago.

In August 2018, Ryan Tubridy publicly backed RTÉ’s calls for a licence fee increase. He said he and his colleagues have one thing subscription services don’t — soul. Perhaps he needs to examine the meaning of the word ‘soul’. 

He has lost respect and trust, shown to very few, simply because he took complete advantage of the public broadcaster who employed his services. 

He allowed greed, and a shocking lack of maturity for someone with his experience and responsibility, to replace sensibility.

 Should he resume his morning radio show? No, he should not. As Gay Byrne might have said, do that once and you’re history.

This article was originally published on June 30, 2023.