Grant Thornton gives RTÉ board report into understatement of Ryan Tubridy earnings

Ryan Tubridy had been paid €225,000 more than was publicly known from 2020 to 2022 in a deal related to the by-now infamous tripartite deal involving Mr Tubridy, RTÉ and Renault. Photo: Oireachtas TV

A key question outstanding over the summer controversy involving Ryan Tubridy’s pay may be closer to an answer after RTÉ received a much-anticipated report into the presenter’s remuneration on Monday.

The report, compiled by forensic accountants Grant Thornton, concerns alleged discrepancies regarding Mr Tubridy’s pay between the years 2017 and 2019.

"The second Grant Thornton Report has been furnished and will now be the subject of detailed consideration by both the Audit and Risk Committee of the RTÉ Board and the broader board itself,” a spokesperson for the broadcaster said. “This process is ongoing."

In late June, when RTÉ first made the public aware of issues regarding Mr Tubridy’s pay between 2017 and 2022, a statement from its board said that along with being paid €225,000 more than was publicly known from 2020 to 2022, the presenter’s pay had also been understated for the years 2017-2019 by €120,000.

However, while the later payments related to the by-now infamous tripartite deal involving Mr Tubridy, RTÉ and Renault, the presenter and his agent Noel Kelly claimed when appearing before two Oireachtas committees last month that the €120,000 issue related to a misapplication of accounting rules by RTÉ.

They said that RTÉ had chosen to account for Mr Tubridy having never opted to receive the €120,000 loyalty bonus owed to him at the expiry of his previous contract in 2020 by taking the sum from his actual earnings for the three-year period 2017-2019, when publishing details of its top 10 earners for that period in 2020.

The split was €20,000 for 2017, and €50,000 apiece for 2018 and 2019.

The new Grant Thornton report is expected to detail the definitive story of what happened with those payments when it is eventually made public.

Questions regarding that period had been studiously avoided by RTÉ as the controversy engulfed the station in June and July, with board members stating consistently that the issue could not be discussed until the Grant Thornton report into the matter had been received.