RTÉ chair: 'It's a betrayal of trust to the public, and we want to apologise for that'

RTÉ board chairwoman Siún Ní Raghallaigh confirmed Mr Tubridy would not be appearing on his radio show on Friday. File Picture

Speaking this evening, RTÉ board chairwoman Siún Ní Raghallaigh said she said “deeply regrets” that her organisation had paid Ryan Tubridy hundreds of thousands of euro more than it declared to the Oireachtas and to the public

“It's a betrayal of trust to the public, and we want to apologise for that. And I would say that we did act quickly once we were alerted to this, and we set the process in train to discover the facts around us."

She told RTÉ's Six One News that the board had received the report last Friday.

Asked how the broadcaster could repair public trust she said: “It's very damaging and we have to build that trust up again. 

"It is the function of the board to oversee the governance of this organisation. And that's what we're about, but it's also a function of the board to ensure that we build that trust again.” 

Asked about who exactly signed off on the payments to Ryan Tubridy, she said that "the matters around the personalities or the people involved" was "not something that we can talk about at this point". 

However, Ms Ní Raghallaigh said that nobody at board level was aware of the deals at the time they were done.

Pressed about whether this controversy was connected to Mr Tubridy's decision stepping down from The Late Late Show in March, Ms Ní Raghallaigh replied: “Not at all.” 

She also confirmed that Mr Tubridy would not be appearing on his radio show on Friday morning.