Grant Thornton finds no other RTÉ stars benefited from additional  payments 

Director General Kevin Bakhurst will tell the committee that RTÉ 'should not be brokering or facilitating commercial arrangements with its contractors'. Picture: Gareth Chaney/Collins

No other RTÉ stars benefited from additional commercial payments, a second Grant Thornton Report into pay at the broadcaster has confirmed.

New director general Kevin Bakhurst will lead his team into the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) tomorrow, where it will be confirmed that the first instalment of the second Grant Thornton Report has found Ryan Tubridy was the only person to receive additional pay.

RTÉ chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh will tell the committee:

Grant Thornton’s review confirms that RTÉ had correctly stated and properly accounted for these figures for the period 2010 to 2022, with the obvious exception of (Mr Tubridy's case). 

Work is ongoing for 2008 – 2009 given the historical nature of those records and the second instalment, namely a review of the misstatement of the 2017 – 2019 figures for Mr Tubridy."

The Grant Thornton report finds that in respect of 2008 to 2016, there are "no errors in the published remuneration figures by RTÉ for Mr Tubridy".

Mr Bakhurst will tell the committee that RTÉ "should not be brokering or facilitating commercial arrangements with its contractors. The level of fees in contracts of this nature are too high".

While Mr Bakhurst will attend, former CFO Breda O'Keeffe, whose testimony last week was thrown into doubt by an email provided by former Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy, will not. Former RTÉ director general Noel Curran will attend remotely.

Government sources said they are hopeful that the appearance will "draw a line under the issue for now" ahead of the Oireachtas recess, but members of the PAC said that will only happen if their questions are "answered sufficiently".

Meanwhile, the Government has appointed a forensic accountant to oversee the books at RTÉ.

Minister Catherine Martin announced on Wednesday that she has appointed Mazars under Section 109 of the Broadcasting Act to examine the accounts of the embattled broadcaster.

Mazars will also collaborate and share findings with the two Expert Advisory Committees on Governance and Culture and on Contractor Fees, Human Resources and other matters, as well as any third-party consultants.

Ms Martin said the "appointment of Mazars as forensic accountants is a very important step in getting to the facts in RTÉ and shedding further light on the issues which have surfaced in recent weeks".

Meanwhile, the television producer and former RTÉ board member Larry Bass has written to the Oireachtas Media Committee to correct statements made by former RTÉ chair Moya Doherty last week.

Ms Doherty had said at the committee that an external expert had advised the board that Mr Bass's appointment to it "was a huge conflict of interest".

However, Mr Bass wrote a two-page letter to committee chair Niamh Smyth in which he said that Ms Doherty was herself an independent producer and "any conflict of interests could have been managed".

He added that his company ShinAwiL does not, as claimed, derive all of its income from the state broadcaster.

Mr Bass resigned from the board in 2021, just one day after his first meeting.