Ex-RTÉ executive claims he was left out of Tubridy pay meeting 'to conceal' deal from him
Former RTÉ chief financial officer Richard Collins left RTÉ in the fall-out from a series of scandals at the broadcaster beginning with the discovery of €225,000 in hidden payments to Ryan Tubridy. Picture: Norma Burke/RollingNews.ie
RTÉ’s former chief financial officer (CFO) has said he believes he was excluded from an infamous meeting concerning payments to Ryan Tubridy in order to “conceal from” him what had taken place.
Richard Collins left RTÉ in the fall-out from a series of scandals at the broadcaster beginning with the discovery of €225,000 in hidden payments to Mr Tubridy.
Mr Collins said that at a meeting he attended on April 30, 2020, it was agreed that RTÉ could not underwrite a series of payments for the former Late Late Show host which were initially intended to be made by car dealer Renault.
One week later on May 7, a Teams meeting was held between former director general (DG) Dee Forbes and Mr Tubridy’s agent Noel Kelly at which a verbal agreement was given by Ms Forbes that RTÉ would indeed underwrite the deal. The decision eventually saw RTÉ pay Mr Tubridy €150,000 in two separate payments of €75,000 wired via a barter agency in the UK.
In a letter to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), Mr Collins said he can “only speculate” as to why he was not updated regarding what had happened on May 7, which differed fundamentally from what he understood to be “agreed company policy on the matter”.
“It would appear to me that the intention was to conceal from me that the decision made at the meeting of 30th April 2020 had been reversed,” he said.
Last month RTÉ furnished the PAC with a summary note of the happenings at the May 7 meeting. It suggested that Ms Forbes was willing to “personally ensure” that money from the sponsorship of The Late Late Show would “always be apportioned” to Mr Tubridy.
That summary further stated 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”.
Queried as to the language contained in the summary note, specifically a line about wanting “to continue on basis discussed (sic)”, the broadcaster said “unfortunately, RTÉ believes it is the former DG who can fully shed light on this issue” and that it does “not definitively know” what much of the content of the summary refers to.
“RTÉ cannot retrospectively interpret the motivation and intent of the former DG,” it said. However, it added that the note “appears” to indicate that Ms Forbes “made a commercial decision to provide comfort to the agent and verbally commit to guarantee” the Tubridy payments.
“It appears to RTÉ that the former DG wanted to retain the services of Mr Tubridy and the former DG made a commercial decision in an attempt to remove the impasse in the negotiations and ensure that the agent would recommend that his client sign the contract for services with RTÉ,” it said.
A spokesperson for Ms Forbes said: "Dee has been unable to participate in the Oireachtas committee meetings or any of the reviews conducted due to medical reasons. Unfortunately, the situation remains unchanged."
Separately, it confirmed that Mr Tubridy was paid €12,500 per month, for June, July and August of this year — the months when he was off the air following the scandal over his hidden payments. This was prior to negotiations over a new radio deal with RTÉ being terminated by its director general Kevin Bakhurst on August 17.
RTÉ further confirmed that the cost of three reviews it commissioned from consultants Grant Thornton—into the remuneration of Mr Tubridy and the costs of Toy Show The Musical—have risen to €627,000 to date, up from €492,000 at the beginning of November.
The PAC has also heard from former RTÉ CFO Breda O’Keeffe, Mr Collins’ predecessor.
Ms O'Keeffe had indicated to the Oireachtas last July that no decision was made to underwrite Mr Tubridy’s payments during her tenure. It subsequently emerged that she had offered to provide a letter underwriting the same in correspondence with Mr Kelly in February 2020.
In her own letter, Ms O’Keeffe acknowledged that she was “mistaken in that recollection and apologise for my recollection”.
Regarding her exit from the broadcaster under a voluntary redundancy programme, a programme for which only obsolete jobs were supposed to qualify, Ms O’Keeffe said it would not be “appropriate for me to make any public comments” pending a public review of that programme being compiled by law firm McCann Fitzgerald.
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