8 things we learned from Ryan Tubridy's Oireachtas committee grilling

Ryan Tubridy and his public relations consultant, Ray Gordon pictured arriving at Leinster House this morning. Picture: Collins Dublin

After RTÉ's executive board members and officials went before Oireachtas committees last week to discuss 'secret' payments made to presenter Ryan Tubridy, on Tuesday it was the turn of the Late Late Show presenter.

Mr Tubridy, with his agent Noel Kelly beside him, appeared before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) and the Oireacthas media committee on Tuesday for six and a half bruising hours of questioning.

While you can get a full recap of the day's happenings here, we picked out eight key bits of information we discovered during the busy day for Mr Tubridy and Mr Kelly.

Decision to leave Late Late Show had 'nothing to do with' the external payments scandal

Speaking in the media committee meeting, Mr Tubridy explained that he had "ran out of gas" as host of The Late Late Show.

He told senator Micheál Carrigy: "You will hear 10,000 stories about how the Late Late Show decision came to pass. There’s only one, I believe, and that’s mine. I presented that show. 

"I loved working with the people, I loved the audience, I love the job, I did it for fourteen years, I ran out of gas, I chose to leave, there is no conspiracy."

He added that he will able to "walk out of those gates with my head held high" due to the work of the Late Late Toy Show charity appeal.

Tubridy believes he has been 'cancelled'

"This is my first rodeo being in the public eye," was a claim made by Mr Tubridy in the PAC meeting.

"I don’t know if any of you’ve been cancelled before but let me tell you, you don’t want to be there,

"People have families." he added.

He repeated the claim in the media committee meeting: "When you're publicly cancelled in the way that I've been, it's not easy."

However, he doesn't believe his reputation has been damaged.

Yes, the salary is enormous, I understand that, but that doesn't affect my soul.

Noel Kelly was unaware of what a barter account was before the payments scandal

When questioned, Mr Kelly said the invoices paid to Astus in relation to Mr Tubridy's payments were the first time he had dealt with any barter account.

Ryan Tubridy's agent Noel Kelly giving evidence to the Public Accounts Committee

He clarified a situation in 2018 which saw RTÉ pay for a table at a charity event he was organising that he had not been involved.

Tubridy 'sees his future at RTÉ' but believes he 'has beef' with some staff 

When asked if he still wanted to work with RTÉ, despite the claims made in front of the Oireacthas, Mr Tubridy replied: "Yes I still see my future there."

Catherine Murphy asked him whether he felt "RTÉ has badly damaged you"

Mr Tubridy said that the past three weeks were "damaging" and that "there are people there I have a beef with, as you can see in the documents"

There were no external offers for Tubridy at the end of his contract

During questioning from Fianna Fáil senator Shane Cassells, it was confirmed by Mr Kelly that as Mr Tubridy's contract was about to expire, no external offers were made for his services.

Mr Tubridy claimed that he had no knowledge of the situation.

Tubridy remains under contract with RTÉ but 'could be out of a job by Friday'

Mr Tubridy confirmed that he is under contract with RTÉ, noting that he is happy to publish any details.

However, he noted that if incoming director-general Kevin Bakhurst makes a decision that he"could be out of a job by Friday"

Screenshot taken from Oireachtas TV of RTE's star presenter Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly giving evidence to the Public Accounts Committee at the Dail.

He later added: "In the event that I do keep my job.. and it's touch and go... I'd be happy to suggest that in future, we'd have a suggestion where we'd publish my contract on an annual basis - with the money and earnings - straight up,

"Don't wait for three years and have codology."

Tubridy is 'the most trusted man in Ireland'

In response to questions from Fianna Fáil TD Cormac Devlin in this morning's PAC meeting, Mr Kelly hit out at the coverage of the payments scandal.

He claimed that his client was "the most trusted man in Ireland”.

He said: "Over the last three weeks. I’ve never seen such horrendous, horrendous reporting,

"And suddenly the most trusted man in Ireland, Ryan Tubridy, it was like ‘throw him under the bus’. Why? Why?”

Renault is still owed six appearances by Tubridy

As part of the tri-partide agreement between Renault and RTÉ, Mr Tubridy is still required to make six appearances at events for the car company.

He said that he was "ready to make those appearances."

Mr Tubridy has already received the payments for these events.

He noted: "If those gigs are not called upon, if my services are not called upon, the money goes straight back."

However, he was initially unsure of who the money would be returned to, before eventually being advised that the answer was RTÉ.