Tubridy and Bakhurst: What caused the breakdown of trust in RTÉ talks?

It was quick in the end.

Ryan Tubridy’s RTÉ morning radio career came to an abrupt halt when director general Kevin Bakhurst called off talks on his return. After two long months of turmoil, the decision puts RTÉ's interests ahead of the man who was its star presenter for more than a decade.

This is Bakhurst’s biggest move since he took command of RTÉ six weeks ago. It would have seemed unimaginable when Tubridy received a hero’s send-off as his run as Late Late Show host ended in May.

But it is a mark of the distance travelled since the June disclosure of hidden Tubridy payments set off RTÉ's biggest crisis, raising fundamental questions about its credibility as a public service broadcaster.

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In what will be a long battle to revive confidence in the organisation and restore order to its finances, Bakhurst has ruled that RTÉ is bigger than the TV personality with the highest pay.

Although the mood music over the fate of Tubridy had darkened in the last couple of days, reservations had long been expressed at very high levels in RTÉ about his prospective return.

Such anxieties mirrored much of the sentiment among staff in the organisation – some of them earning only a tiny portion of Tubridy’s salary – who reacted with horror to revelations about his unorthodox payments via RTÉ's UK “barter account”.

As a litany of chaotic governance failings spilled into the open, the furore over “slush fund” spending on RTÉ corporate clients added to anger within the organisation.

Most of that was separate to the Tubridy issues, but certain individuals were concerned that the efforts to overcome the debacle would be hampered if the person most closely associated with it was back on the air.

Still, that did not prevent Bakhurst entering talks with Tubridy on a return to the morning show. Up to a point at least, the negotiation appears to have progressed well.

Tubridy was apparently willing to accept a salary cut to bring his pay “significantly below” €200,000, which would still have left him among the top earners. He also signalled he would return the €150,000 he received from RTÉ's “barter account” under the abortive deal with Late Late Show sponsor Renault to make personal appearances.

Indeed, Bakhurst made it clear that the parties had reached agreement on “some of the fundamentals, including fee, duration and hours”.

But that was where the agreement stopped. Tubridy received a measure of good news on Wednesday when accountants Grant Thornton found he and his agent Noel Kelly had no role in misleading statements that claimed he was on a salary less than €500,000 in 2017-2019 when he wasn’t.

Tubridy, and certain others in the State broadcaster, saw those finding as lever to secure his returns to his 9am weekday slot on Radio 1.

“I am committed to re-establishing the confidence and trust of my colleagues and listeners, and I hope that any fair assessment of the findings of today’s report will help in this regard,” Tubridy said in a statement.

Still, he went on to say his “actual income from RTÉ in 2020 and 2021 matches what was originally published as my earnings for those years”. That assertion was grounded in data set out by Grant Thornton about the pay he received via RTÉ's payroll system. But he neglected to acknowledge the contentious “barter account” money at the heart of the affair

This was too much for Bakhurst as his rescue strategy is predicated on a dealing transparently and in full with the manifest problems that have surfaced.

With the Tubridy talks supposed to be entering the decisive phase after the latest Grant Thornton report, RTÉ sought clarification from Tubridy. This was delivered yesterday.

“We did send a very clear clarification in response to their request,” said a source close to Tubridy. “We submitted it before lunch. We were very clear that we were not questioning the basis for the restatement of the figures by RTÉ.”

But this was not good enough for Bakhurst, who said last night that “trust between the parties” had broken down.

“Public statements made without consultation appear to question the basis for the necessary restatement of fees paid for services for 2020 and 2021,” he said.

The upshot of it all is clear. With many miles still to travel before the organisation regains stability, the director general has sent a signal that no individual personality will be allowed stand in the way of the recovery effort.

This will have implications for other highly paid broadcasters when their salaries come to be renegotiated when their current contracts end. If Bakhurst wants pay cuts he will get them.