€33k on golf outings among commercial entertainment bought by RTÉ's barter accounts
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RTÉ spent just over €300,000 in order to deliver undisclosed payments to Ryan Tubridy of €150,000, according to new figures released to the Oireachtas.
Details of three barter accounts used by the broadcaster show that in 2022, €300,739 was spent in total regarding the tripartite deal struck between the presenter, RTÉ and Renault to ensure payments of €75,000 per annum to Mr Tubridy over three years.
The cash was spent on building sets, furniture and branding for a mock-Late Late Show event to be held for the benefit of commercial partner Renault, together with accommodation for RTÉ attendees and a chauffeur to help managing director of Noel Kelly management Niamh Tyndall, who was eight months pregnant at the time, to attend one of the events.
RTÉ was rocked on Tuesday by revelations of previously undeclared barter accounts which management explicitly denied the existence of only last week.
Meanwhile, two payments of €115,380 were recorded, comprising the €75,000 due to Mr Tubridy for two years as part of the tripartite arrangement.
Those figures feature in a summary of the Astus barter account—named for the UK agency the account was held with—stretching back to 2012.
The accounts detail the commercial entertainments which RTÉ spent money on during that timeframe including, in the period pre-2019:
- €26,000 on Bruce Springsteen and Ed Sheeran concerts
- €23,100 on 36 tickets to the 2016 Champions League Final
- €32,200 on a ‘cinema’ expense labelled ‘RTÉ Sport no other detail’
- €53,700 on RTÉ’s new season launch in August 2018
- €21,000 on RTÉ’s client summer party in August 2016
- €33,400 on two golf outings held for clients at Powerscourt Golf Club in 2016 and 2018
Between 2019 and 2022, use of the Astus account slowed significantly. However, in 2019 some €65,000 was spent on flights to the Rugby World Cup in Japan, with another €47,000 spent on hotels.
A further €138,456 was spent on six 10-year IRFU season tickets, at a cost of €23,000 apiece. The sheet notes that the number of such tickets had reduced from 10 to six.
Meanwhile, also in 2019, €5,600 was spent on a trip to a Republic of Ireland European Championship qualifier in Gibraltar.
Another of the three barter accounts used by RTÉ recorded a credit of €344,000 over the 13 months between November 2021 and December 2022.
The account, named Miroma for another UK agency handling the account, recorded 43 transactions in that time relating to advertising campaigns concerning three clients—Allianz, Universal, and Unibet. The statement shows that €468,000 had been due to RTÉ on foot of those campaigns.
Three of the campaigns, relating to gambling company Novibet, are described as having cash worth 57% of the transaction submitted, with 43% of the deal left in credit. A further 26 campaigns, split between Allianz and Universal, are shown to have been discounted by 50%.
The remaining 14 campaigns, all relating to insurers Allianz, were paid in full to a value of €230,000. The final account, named Active for the agency which administered it, details transactions with clients such as Airtricity and Dyson Ireland between 2015 and 2022.
Some €2m worth of deals are detailed in the Active account, with a final trade value of €1.1m.