RTÉ salaries and TV licence angered public the most amid Tubridy payments scandal 

Scandal surrounding secret payments to Ryan Tubridy led the public to complain to the Government, with the TV licence in particular garnering abuse. Picture: Alan Hamilton

RTÉ salaries and the TV licence fee angered people most amid the scandal over hidden payments to host Ryan Tubridy, according to a series of complaints delivered to the Government.

The licence fee in particular came in for abuse from a frustrated public in the wake of the scandal, which first broke in late June, with several complainants to the Taoiseach calling for the tax to be scrapped.

The broadcaster has been beset with controversy since it first emerged that some €150,000 in payments to Mr Tubridy had been concealed between 2020 and 2022 — news that precipitated the resignation of director general Dee Forbes and a series of damaging Oireachtas committee hearings which saw much of the inner workings at RTÉ laid bare.

“The TV licence is unjust. Everyone who owns a TV must pay the fee. Now we see it is also unjust for consumers to keep paying when RTÉ have no regard for how they spend public funding,” one person wrote to Leo Varadkar as the scandal unfolded, one of many complaints released to the Irish Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act.

Another angry citizen told Mr Varadkar they would be delighted “if the TV licence is cancelled as RTÉ management have shown they couldn’t run a tap”.

“I feel the Government are left with no option but to close it down,” they said.

In addressing Media Minister Catherine Martin, whose role in overseeing RTÉ came in for heightened scrutiny in late June and early July, a further complainant said they stood “with the ordinary, highly talented and skillful workers” of RTÉ .

“I expect radical political actions from you and your coalition partners, nothing less,” they said, promising a “licence payers’ revolt by Budget Day” should that not come to pass.

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Other people took issue with the scale of RTÉ’s top ‘talent’ salaries.

“Patience is running thin,” one complainant told the Taoiseach.

“Every dog in the street can see that these presenters and RTÉ boards (sic) are overpaid. It’s time to empty the place and bring in fresh blood.”

Still others were less than impressed with the “insult to the public’s intelligence” that was the RTÉ executive’s contention that Ms Forbes was the only person who had known the full extent of the hidden payments process.

“What we are hearing is just extraordinary. Unbelievable,” one wrote.

“This was the taxpayers’ money. For the board to try and make us believe that nobody knew anything only Dee Forbes is an insult to the public’s intelligence,” they said.

Mr Tubridy himself did not escape without criticism with one complainant to Mr Varadkar asking “what makes him so special that he felt he should be immune to the pain others were required to suffer?”

“Surely this demonstrates that Ryan Tubridy had no consideration for other RTÉ staff?

“Very much a mé féin attitude,” they wrote.

Meanwhile, the Oireachtas committee members did not emerge unscathed, with one Canadian observer noting there were some “questioners who seem to be caught up in emotional histrionics rather than a logical search for the truth”.