Cash at Gaybo’s media firm climbs by almost €100k

The country’s most celebrated broadcaster, Gay Byrne, has left his financial woes behind with cash at his media firm climbing by almost €100,000 to €443,343.

Two years ago, Gaybo — who celebrated his 79th birthday last week — admitted that he was back at work because his pension has been wiped out and his investments in property syndicates organised by financier Derek Quinlan were under “pressure”.

New accounts filed by the broadcaster’s media firm, Gabbro Ltd, with the Companies Office show that even in semi-retirement, Byrne’s finances have flourished in the past two years.

The accounts — signed off by Byrne and his wife, Kathleen on Aug 1 — cover a two-year period dating from May 2011 to Apr 30 of this year.

The abridged accounts show that the cash pile at the firm climbed during that time by €94,114 from €349,229 to €443,343.

The company’s balance sheet shows that the firm’s accumulated profits rose by 26% or €86,750 from €328,107 to €414,767.

In spite of Byrne’s semi- retired status, the funds at the firm have grown steadily from €190,000 in 2008 to this year’s high.

The revenues generated by the firm would include the monies received for Byrne’s live one-man show that toured across Ireland last year.

Byrne recently returned to our screens with the latest installment of his Meaning of Life series with a much lauded interview with Bono — 14 years after stepping down as presenter of The Late Late Show.

Only two years ago in a press interview, Byrne — working with RTÉ for more than half a century now — revealed that his pension pot had been wiped out.

He said: “I never had a pension in RTÉ so we invested in what we believed were blue chip stocks, AIB, Bank of Ireland, Anglo — and all of that has been wiped out.”

Byrne — who continues to enjoy a high-public profile because of his work as chairman of the Road Safety Authority — also admitted that property investments he had made were “a millstone around our neck”.

He said: “I am working because I have to, although I choose to do it anyway.”

Byrne’s loss on his shares and investments was the second jolt to his personal finances. In 1987, the Dubliner had to rebuild his finances after learning that his life savings, entrusted to his friend, and accountant, the late Russell Murphy, had disappeared.

Byrne hosted the world’s longest running chat show, The Late Late Show for 37 years on RTÉ and was briefly linked with the idea of running for president in the summer of 2011 after topping opinion polls.

Since his retirement from The Late Late Show, Byrne has hosted a jazz show on Lyric FM on Sunday afternoons and a series of interviews with musicians for RTÉ television called For One Night Only.

Byrne remains outspoken, accusing Alan Shatter, the justice minister, only last week of having little or no interest in road safety — a charge that has been denied by the Department of Justice.