RTÉ facing fresh demands to explain €120,000 in hidden payments to Ryan Tubridy

RTÉ is facing fresh demands to explain €120,000 in hidden payments to Ryan Tubridy, as the national broadcaster faces another week of tumult over misleading statements about the star presenter’s pay.

Almost a fortnight after the controversy emerged, the lack of an explanation for €120,000 in undeclared Tubridy payments between 2017 and 2019 is only one of the big outstanding questions. That understated sum was included in the €345,000 in hidden payments to the former Late Late Show host that were never declared in a line of public statements on top presenter pay after 2017.

More is known about the remaining €225,000 that Mr Tubridy received in 2020 and 2022 after a three-way agreement between the presenter, RTÉ and Renault, but Oireachtas committees are still pressing for clarity about that money, too.

In relation to the €120,000, however, RTÉ has offered only limited and at times confusing details. It came to light when accountants Grant Thornton reviewed Mr Tubridy’s “previously stated remunerations” after poring over the hidden €225,000 in 2020 and 2022, RTÉ has said.

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Mr Tubridy received €511,667 in 2017, but RTÉ did not declare €20,000, so his stated pay was €491,667, less than €500,000.

[ Investigation into RTÉ’s finances expected to focus on ‘slush fund’ ]

In both 2018 and 2019, Mr Tubridy received €545,000, but RTÉ did not declare €50,000 in either year, again wrongly suggesting he was on less than €500,000 in each of those years.

RTÉ said “the circumstances” leading to such understatements were under review by Grant Thornton. Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the mooted four-week time frame for the completion of this was “not satisfactory”, but it remains unclear whether the firm will report sooner.

A further element of uncertainly came at last Wednesday’s hearing of the Oireachtas arts and media committee. RTÉ financial controller Richard Collins was questioned about the €120,000 and he linked it to a “loyalty bonus” due to Mr Tubridy when his last contract ended in 2020, which was not actually paid.

“That was never paid and never accrued for in the accounts. However, for an unexplained reason, that €120,000 was credited against his earnings between 2017 and 2019,” Mr Collins said then.

[ Miriam Lord: Tubsgate and Dee Forbes’ rich list will make this week a hard one to follow - but TDs want a sequel ]

However, Mr Collins told last Thursday’s meeting of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee that the two questions were separate.

“[Mr Tubridy] was due a €120,000 bonus at the end of his contract. It was never paid and never accrued. That is one matter,” Mr Collins said. “A separate matter is that €120,000 was deducted from his actual earnings when the published earnings were being calculated from 2017 to 2019.”

In relation to the €225,000 in 2020 and 2022, the hidden money arose from the deal with Late Late Show sponsor Renault.

Mr Tubridy was to receive €75,000 each year for three personal appearances for the company, money that was deducted from its RTÉ sponsorship fee. That made the arrangement “cost-neutral” for Renault but imposed a cost on RTÉ. Mr Tubridy received €75,000 from Renault in 2020 but did not make the appearances until 2022 because of Covid-19 lockdowns.

Renault scrapped the arrangement in 2021, but RTÉ still had to pay Mr Tubridy because of a verbal agreement to his agent Noel Kelly to guarantee the €75,000 per year if there was no sponsor. After pressure from Mr Kelly, RTÉ made two €75,000 payments in 2022 in respect of that year and its 2021 obligations.

[ Noel Kelly: Who is the behind-the-scenes agent, seen as RTÉ's ‘real director general’? ]

Such payments were made on foot of invoices from Mr Kelly’s company for “consultancy fees” and the money was routed through RTÉ's “barter account” in a UK company.

“It appears to me that this was an act designed to deceive,” RTÉ chairwoman Siún Ní Raghallaigh told Thursday’s committee hearing.

Barter accounts are typically used for trading advertising and marketing services. RTÉ incurred €80,760 in barter account fees for the €150,000 Tubridy payments, and paid €30,586 for the Renault deal at a total cost of €47,477 including barter account fees.