RTÉ finally gives PAC note about meeting on Tubridy contract

RTÉ had long maintained that only Ms Forbes could be wholly held accountable for the deal, which has brought RTÉ to its knees and has seen its licence fee income collapse. File picture

Former RTÉ director general Dee Forbes assured Ryan Tubridy’s agent Noel Kelly that additional pay for the presenter was a top priority for the broadcaster as “we’ve reputations to uphold”.

The summary of a memo of a Microsoft Teams meeting attended by Ms Forbe and Mr Kelly on May 7, 2020, was released to the Dáil public accounts committee (PAC) last night.

It indicates that — despite RTÉ's then unwillingness to underwrite a third-party payment deal for Mr Tubridy — Ms Forbes was willing to “personally ensure” that money from the sponsorship of The Late Late Show would “always be apportioned” to Mr Tubridy.

The summary further states that RTÉ was not willing to confirm the infamous tripartite deal between itself, Renault, and Mr Tubridy in writing as to do so would “negate what we’re trying to do”.

The memo is likely to raise more questions for RTÉ than the broadcaster was already facing.

It states that RTÉ’s Finance department was seeking to formally invoice the now infamous tripartite deal between RTÉ, Renault, and Mr Tubridy – which saw the presenter paid €225,000 above his published salary – in order to appease scrutiny by the Revenue Commissioners.

RTÉ has long maintained that only Ms Forbes could be wholly held accountable for the deal, which has brought RTÉ to its knees and has seen its licence fee income collapse.

The summary, prepared by RTÉ solicitors Arthur Cox, notes that a representative from Noel Kelly Management had stressed the firm's opinion that RTÉ would underwrite the deal, with the response from the RTÉ side being they could not “in formal sense as that would compromise what we are trying to achieve”.

NK Management had indicated that no written commitment to underwrite “would be a problem” as it was “not what was agreed”.

Ms Forbes “appears to indicate” in the summary’s wording that “we all want this to work; we’ve reputations to uphold”, though she noted that sentiment might be “cold comfort” at that time.

The meeting then discussed the possibility that Mr Tubridy’s salary would be cut further, with NK Management retorting, “absolutely not”.

Ms Forbes also moved to guarantee in writing, in July 2020, that no further reductions in Mr Tubridy’s salary would be forthcoming.

The summary was released on Friday after the PAC had the previous day rejected a compromise offer from RTÉ which would have seen only the Arthur Cox summary delivered to the committee.

The PAC has been vigorously pursuing the memo since the Tubridy scandal broke last June, but to no avail. It had threatened to compel the document’s release should RTÉ continue to defy its request.

In his letter to the PAC, RTÉ’s new Director General Kevin Bakhurst said that the broadcaster has “always been fully committed to ensuring that there is transparency and probity in relation to its dealings with the committee”.