'Seven material untruths': Watch Ryan Tubridy's opening statement to the PAC

Ryan Tubridy 

Ryan Tubridy has told politicians that RTÉ has "created a fog of confusion" over his pay which has concealed the full truth.

Mr Tubridy said that he has become "the face of a national scandal; accused of being complicit, deceitful and dishonest," and this has been "my darkest hour both professionally and personally".

He also told an Oireachatas Committee that he wants to get back to his job at the national broadcaster as soon as possible.

The former Late Late Show host will address a list of "untruths" that were put forward about his salary and the agreement reached with Renault when he appears before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) this morning.

"As has become abundantly obvious in the last three weeks: this highlights the existence of two RTÉs. There are those who were involved in attempting to conceal payments and who were in a position to call me or my agent and ask for our help in establishing the full fact. Instead, they chose to hurriedly issue a deeply damaging statement on June 22nd which failed to include the full facts."

Mr Tubridy told the committee that he believes "full transparency and disclosure on RTÉ’s part would have avoided this."

The radio host said the claim that he did not take a pay cut from RTÉ in 2020 is "not true".

"I took a 20% pay cut from RTÉ in my 2020-2025 contract. That’s it. I took a 20% pay cut from RTÉ. I am obliged to do 205 radio shows and 38 live 2-hour Late Late Shows under this contract."

He added: "But to be clear - I took a pay cut from RTÉ of 20% in 2020 for each of the five years of my contract, at a cost of €525,000 to me over the length of that contract."

He also said that the suggestion that his decision to retire from the Late Late Show was prompted by this whole debacle is not true.

Mr Tubridy says the third untruth put forward is that he was covertly or secretly ‘overpaid’ by RTÉ.

"This is not true. I was not overpaid by RTÉ at any point. I fully accept I am very well-paid but I was paid fully in accordance with my contract, which my agent negotiated openly, honestly and in good faith. There are no over-payments."

Ryan Tubridy's statement in full can be read below: 

His opening statement adds: "There are RTÉ’s under-declarations – which we challenged them on back in 2020 – and there are RTÉ’s over-declarations of what they actually paid me in 2020 and 2021. This has caused justifiable anger among my colleagues. I understand their anger. The upshot of RTÉ’s inaccurate declarations is an impression that I have been less than honest. This is not the case."

Mr Tubridy also said that it is not true that:

• He was aware that RTÉ were trying to conceal payments to him
• There was a secret agreement with Renault that he tried to conceal
• RTÉ’s underwriting of Renault’s payment obligations was a secret.

Mr Tubridy added: "Finally the 7th untruth: That I did not ask RTÉ about their under-declarations of my earnings when they released the 2017, 2018 and 2019 earnings on the one day, January 20 2021?

"This is a question I did not ask at that time, and one I should have asked. I fully accept that."

Mr Tubridy said he is "particularly upset and disappointed about the decision and framing of the RTÉ statement of 22 June which inextricably linked my name to this whole fiasco". 

"My name was mentioned 15 times in that statement, and I was not consulted once. I did not have the Grant Thornton Report which RTÉ had and which RTÉ acknowledged made no findings of wrongdoing on my part. I asked RTÉ to clarify that this was the case, they did….four days later after much of the damage was done."