PAC meeting hears no salary being paid to Ryan Tubridy as of this week
RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst.
Ryan Tubridy is currently not being paid a salary by RTÉ as of this week, an Oireachtas committee has heard.
RTÉ executives are back before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Thursday, with new director general (DG) Kevin Bakhurst making his first appearance.
Mr Bakhurst, who is on just his fourth day on the job, told the committee that it was “completely unacceptable” that the public and politicians were misled.
- Kevin Bakhurst told the committee that as of this week, there is no salary being paid to Ryan Tubridy.
- Mr Tubridy invoiced RTÉ this week for payment, but that bill has not been paid.
- Interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch apologised to Renault, saying "have been dragged into this, so it’s outrageous, in a way".
- Mr Lynch challenged evidence given by Mr Tubridy’s agent Noel Kelly at the PAC on Tuesday.
- RTÉ has not asked Mr Tubridy to pay back money for Renault appearances.
- Mr Bakhurst said he would welcome former director-general Dee Forbes appearing before Oireachtas committees.
- Licence fee figures for June were largely in line with the year before but Mr Bakhurst acknowledged they could take a hit going forward.
Mr Bakhurst, who stood down RTÉ’s executive leadership board on Monday as he vowed to restore people’s trust in Ireland’s public service broadcaster, told TDs on Thursday that the controversy is “one of the most shameful and damaging episodes in the organisation’s history”.
He also committed to publishing the pay of the executives on his permanent “leadership team” annually, along with the top 10 presenters’ pay in RTÉ’s annual report.
Mr Bakhurst also stated that RTÉ should not be “brokering or facilitating” commercial arrangements with its contractors, and that the level of fees in these contracts “are too high”.
“I am absolutely determined to implement the change and reform which will help us draw a line under this shameful period in RTÉ’s history and to rebuild trust in public service broadcasting,” he told TDs.
The hearing heard that Ryan Tubridy invoiced RTÉ this week for payment, but that bill has not been paid as there is no agreement as to what his rate of pay should now be given he is no longer performing his Late Late Show duties. The presenter stood down from the job in May.
Mr Bakhurst told the committee that as of this week, there is no salary being paid to Mr Tubridy.
The new DG also said he did not accept Mr Tubridy’s claim there were seven mistruths from RTÉ that were put forward about his salary and the agreement reached with Renault.
At the meeting, RTÉ's interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch strongly disputed the idea that a deal to underwrite Mr Tubridy’s commercial deal with Renault was agreed by anyone other than former director general Dee Forbes.
Mr Lynch said that a February 2020 email brought to the committee’s attention by Mr Tubridy's agent Noel Kelly on Tuesday in which former RTÉ chief financial officer Breda O’Keeffe had said that RTÉ could underwrite Mr Tubridy’s commercial deal with Renault, was merely part of “a negotiation that was ongoing and was not completed”.
Despite saying in an opening statement that the decision to underwrite the deal had been “central” to Mr Tubridy signing a new contract in 2020, and that it would not have been signed without that commitment, Mr Lynch said his position remains that the deal was only given the go ahead verbally following an online meeting involving Ms Forbes on May 7 of that year.
“RTÉ’s position is that until the verbal commitment was given by the former director general during the call on the 7th of May 2020 it had not agreed to underwrite a €75,000 payment per contract year.”
He further disputed the idea, presented by Mr Kelly on Tuesday, that the agent and Ms Forbes had never met without legal or financial representatives present, saying that RTÉ has a record of a Microsoft Teams meeting on April 25, 2022 between Ms Forbes and Mr Kelly, with nobody else present to discuss the outstanding €150,000 due to Mr Tubridy as part of the tripartite deal with RTÉ and Renault.
He then read the text of an email sent following that meeting to Ms Forbes from Mr Kelly into the record, which said: “Hi Dee, hope you're well, good to catch up today, if you could get Ger (Geraldine O'Leary) to send on invoicing details."
“Who did Mr Kelly think he was sending invoices to?” Mr Lynch asked.
There was some rancour at the committee when it became clear that the email in question had not been furnished to members before the hearing began.
Mr Lynch said he did not know why that was the case, saying it was part of a pack of documents printed out for him ahead of the meeting.
Mr Lynch also apologised to Renault over the fallout from a commercial agreement.
Responding to Sinn Féin TD John Brady, Mr Lynch said: “I want to apologise to Renault because Renault have been dragged into this, so it’s outrageous, in a way.” He said it is “completely obvious” that the payment of €75,000 from Renault for three events with Mr Tubridy was from a one-year agreement.
RTÉ had agreed to underwrite two further payments of €75,000 in the event a commercial partner could not be found for subsequent years.
Mr Tubridy, who received a further €150,000 on that basis, has previously said he would pay it back if those events do not proceed.
Asked if RTÉ had asked Mr Tubridy to return the money, Mr Lynch said the broadcaster had not because there was a verbal agreement given to his agent that it would pay the money.
Mr Bakhurst added: “There’s two things here for me: there’s a legal agreement and RTÉ has a liability.
“Then, I think there’s a moral question about what’s the right thing to do and I think when we do come to have any discussions with Mr Tubridy going forward – I welcomed his offer the other day and we’ll wait and see what he does about it.”
RTÉ’s acting deputy director-general Adrian Lynch was interrupted as he told the PAC he had received a text from former chief financial officer Breda O’Keeffe.
Mr Lynch said: “I received a text from the former CFO, just to say she would dispute the idea that nobody in the executive knew…”
But he was told the committee could not accept second-hand evidence.
Ms O’Keeffe had told the committee she would not attend on Thursday as she had nothing further to add.
Mr Lynch defended his attempt to relay information contained in a text message from former chief financial officer Breda O’Keeffe.
“I received a text, whatever it was, 20 minutes ago. I thought it was very important having made a statement before the house that that should be corrected.
“I thought it was material.”
Mr Lynch had previously told the committee that Ms O’Keeffe’s exit package had not been signed off by all members of the executive.
Chair of the RTÉ Board Siún Ní Raghallaigh said that Mr Bakhurst “is steadying the ship of RTÉ by taking swift action on a range of important matters” – including setting up a register of interests for staff and contractors.
The crisis at the broadcaster has widened out from underdeclared pay to Mr Tubridy to RTÉ’s internal financial, accounting and governance practices and its expenditure on corporate hospitality for advertising clients.
The Government has launched two external reviews into RTÉ, has announced forensic accountant Mazars to look into RTÉ’s accounts, and has paused discussions on a new long-term funding arrangement for the broadcaster.
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