Tubridy off air as RTÉ promises further investigations into payments
His Tubridy Radio Gareth Donnybrook, Chaney Dublin Picture: In Collins Studio Presenter Ryan In
RTÉ’s Ryan Tubridy will be off air this morning after the national broadcaster was rocked by revelations that it made hidden payments totalling €345,000 to the top presenter.
Chairwoman of RTÉ board Siún Ní Raghallaigh admitted that the broadcaster misled the Government, its staff, and the public over payments to Mr Tubridy during a six-year period.
Ms Ní Raghallaigh refused to reveal who signed off on the secret payments, but said those currently on the board were not aware of the agreement. She said people will be held accountable following further investigation.
“It is a betrayal of trust to the public and we want to apologise for that,” she told .
“The matters around the personalities or the people involved in this is not something we can talk about at this point.”
These most recent payments are recorded in what is known as a barter account. She said the account was under control of the commercial department, but should have been under the finance department.
In one case, Mr Tubridy was paid €150,000, but the cost to RTÉ was €230,000 including €80,000 in fees. She said it was a “shocking amount of money”.
She said Mr Tubridy’s decision to quit as host of back in March, when the financial issue first came to light, is not connected.
It is not yet known if Mr Tubridy will return to the station to present his Radio 1 show next week.
RTÉ admitted it failed to declare the true extent of what it was paying to the former host. The hidden payments, totalling €345,000 between 2017 and 2022, were uncovered after RTÉ’s auditors alerted the board to some of the transactions.
The additional payments were as a result of a commercial deal under a separate agreement of which Mr Tubridy was guaranteed by RTÉ an extra annual income of €75,000, which was intended to come from a commercial partner.
The payment in 2020 did come from the commercial partner of the station, in exchange for a number of personal appearances.
"As part of this agreement, RTÉ in turn issued a credit note to the commercial partner, thereby reducing the cost to it of its overall sponsorship arrangement with the organisation," RTÉ said.
"The commercial partner did not renew this agreement for a second year, and since the agreement was guaranteed and underwritten by RTÉ, the payments were instead made directly by RTÉ to Mr Tubridy's agent (on his behalf)."
Mr Tubridy has appeared to place the blame on RTÉ, and said he is “surprised” and “can’t shed any light” on why RTÉ treated these payments in the way that it did.
“It is unfortunate that these errors are in relation to how RTÉ have reported payments made to me, but I just want to be clear: this is a matter for RTÉ and I have no involvement in RTÉ’s internal accounting treatment or RTÉ’s public declarations in connection with such payments," he said.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed to be at the centre of this story, but unfortunately, I can’t shed any light on why RTÉ treated these payments in the way that they did, nor can I answer for their mistakes in this regard.”
RTÉ also said that further investigations had revealed that between 2017 and 2019, Mr Tubridy received a total of €120,000 more in payments from the station than had been previously publicly stated. The reasons for these payments are currently under investigation, the broadcaster said.
Media Minister Catherine Martin is to meet the RTÉ board on Monday over the matter.
Tánaiste Micheál Martin said the revelations are "very serious".