RTÉ staff 'shocked, dismayed and angry' over Ryan Tubridy payments

The payments totaled €345,000 and have been described as a serious breach of trust.

Séamus Dooley from the National Union of Journalists says it will be tough for RTÉ to start re-building trust.

"The agreement to pay additional sums to Ryan Tubridy occurred at a time when RTÉ was pleading poverty, when it was seeking pay cuts, when RTÉ was enforcing austerity measures and all the time this was going on in the background," said Mr Dooley.

"That is a significant breach of trust and that undermines a trust which is at the heart of industrial relations. 

Trust is hard won and easily lost so there is a job of work to be done by RTÉ at this stage."

In a detailed statement, RTÉ said the money was paid between 2017 and 2022, and was above his annual published salary.

The payments were uncovered after a “transparency” issue about payments made to Mr Tubridy was identified during a routine audit of RTÉ’s 2022 accounts in March.

As a result, the broadcaster’s audit and risk committee commissioned Grant Thornton to carry out an independent fact-finding review into the issue.

The secretary of the RTÉ group of trade unions has told of the shock, dismay, disbelief and anger that was felt at Thursday’s revelations.

Cearbhall Ó Síocháin told RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland that when the details came in through a statement the reaction was “largely one of fury and disappointment. Yet another sort of own goal and unavoidable and real catastrophe almost”.

He continued: "In January 2021, we were in negotiations for €60 million in cost-cutting measures and we were shown the books.

"And it was explained to us how things were particularly difficult for the authority financially at the moment. And it just defies belief, really."

The group of unions is seeking a meeting with the chair of the board where they will be looking to find out how this situation came about.

The questions really are quite simple. Why and how did this happen? Who initiated it and who greenlit it?

"Why was it conducted in such a fashion that makes it look like it was a secret deal or that the money would be hidden? And why? And how was this not spotted over six years, these discrepancies?"

Siptu Organiser, Martin Mannion said the impact of the situation cannot be overstated and it has both confirmed and compounded an existed lack of confidence and distrust among RTÉ staff.

Station management should not underestimate the degree of anger among our members, he warned.

"At the time of these payments many low paid staff at the station were being asked to accept cost reduction measures," Mr Mannion said.

"Most staff had received only one pay rise in more than a decade and the broadcaster was discovered to have widely undermined statutory workers’ rights through the implementation of bogus self-employment schemes."

He added: “Siptu members at RTÉ who have dedicated their careers to the best principles of public service will settle for nothing less than full accountability and serious reform at the station.”

Calls for RTÉ director general to appear before PAC 

The chairperson of the Oireachtas public accounts committee (PAC), Sinn Féin TD Brian Stanley has called for the former director general of RTÉ Dee Forbes to come back before the committee to explain the payments to Ryan Tubridy.

Mr Stanley was speaking on Newstalk Breakfast and on RTÉ radio’s Morning Ireland when he said the national broadcaster had been involved in “dodgy accountancy practices.” He said the PAC had been misled by senior staff in RTÉ on a number of occasions.

The finances of RTÉ had been “very tricky” over the last few years, he said. There had been a commitment to reducing pay, but it appeared that Ryan Tubridy had in fact received more than what had been publicly disclosed.

It would be helpful if Ms Forbes came before the PAC again to “give a full account” as she was the person who had been on the RTÉ management team.

Mr Stanley said he accepted that sometimes a witness before the committee could mistakenly give the wrong information, but when details were given in writing “you expect it to be accurate".

“When you get that a number of times and what happened here is that we were actually lied to on a number of occasions. So it would be helpful if going forward, Dee Forbes came out and set the record straight about this.

“What I want to know is that who set up this dodgy accountancy practices? Who set it off? Who signed off on it? And who knew about it and why?” 

Former RTÉ group commercial director Willie O’Reilly told Newstalk Breakfast that he was “utterly shocked” at the revelations. 

Mr O’Reilly agreed that answers should be given to the PAC and there should be both internal and external independent investigations into what had happened.

“What we have here is fraudulent accountancy practices. This is not the way you do business," he told Morning Ireland.

When you deliberately seek to hide money, when you deliberately seek to misrepresent accounts for whatever sum of money, that's actually fraudulent accountancy.

"This isn't happening in any kind of a dodgy backstreet operation. This isn't Dell Boy and Rodney. This is actually the national broadcaster."

He said the PAC were given firm commitments that pay across the top ten presenters was being reduced.

“What we need to see here and now, is a very upfront 100% disclosure, not bits and pieces, not news management, not information in drips and drabs? We need people to come out that knew about this.

“This isn't very complicated. This needs to be sorted out quickly. We need to all the facts upon the table and people are held accountable."

For his part, Mr Tubridy - who has been taken off air this morning - 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.