RTÉ pauses negotiations with Ryan Tubridy over new radio contract
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RTÉ has paused contract negotiations with Ryan Tubridy in the wake of the scandal surrounding unpublished payments made to him by the organisation.
RTÉ is to face two Oireachtas Committees on Wednesday and Thursday over a tally of €345,000 paid to the former host across the space of five years.
He had stepped down from presenting RTÉ's flagship talk show in May of this year but had still been hosting his morning radio show for RTÉ up until last Thursday, when the news of the payments first broke.
However, an RTÉ statement to the on Wednesday morning confirmed that contract talks with Mr Tubridy had been paused. His current contract, negotiated in 2020, was set to expire in 2025.
RTÉ told the : "Ryan Tubridy stood down from in May.
"RTÉ has written to his agent that the contract (including all arrangements therein) has come to an end. Negotiations had commenced regarding his radio responsibilities. Those negotiations have been paused as with all negotiations as per Board statement."
However, Mr Tubridy has disputed RTÉ's statement on his contract, with The Irish Times reporting he "does not accept" that the contract is terminated.
Addressing the controversial payments in a statement on Tuesday, RTÉ said they would have been given final approval by former director general Dee Forbes.
RTÉ interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch said that a series of €75,000 payments, to be made by commercial partner Renault but underwritten by RTÉ, were negotiated by “the director general and the then chief financial officer (Breda O’Keeffe) supported by the RTÉ solicitor” and were then approved by Ms Forbes.
The RTÉ statement asserts that of the RTÉ executive board’s members only Ms Forbes and RTÉ commercial director Geraldine O’Leary had knowledge of two invoices for €75,000 apiece delivered to the broadcaster in May and July of 2022, and that Ms O’Leary’s involvement was limited to “instructions” given to her by Ms Forbes regarding those payments.
It adds that Mr Tubridy had not been made aware that RTÉ delivered a credit note to Renault as part of the deal’s transactions, and likewise a Grant Thornton investigation commissioned into the payments had made “no finding of wrongdoing” on the part of either Renault or Mr Tubridy.
Ms Forbes resigned with immediate effect from RTÉ on Monday, after a suspension from her role—which she had been due to leave at the start of July—last week. She said in her statement on Monday that she "did not at any stage act contrary to any advice".
Mr Tubridy apologised "unreservedly" on Friday for not questioning the incorrect publication of his earnings from RTÉ.
In a statement, he said: "While I have no responsibility for the corporate governance in RTÉ or how or what they publish in their accounts, when my earnings were published I should have asked questions at the time and sought answers as to the circumstances which resulted in incorrect figures being published."