RTÉ has disclosed that it understated how much it had paid Ryan Tubridy by €345,000 over several years, in what the chair of its board said was a “serious breach of trust with the public”.
External accountants are to review the contracts of the top 10 highest paid presenters in RTÉ after an initial investigation revealed the broadcaster had significantly understated how much it was paying the Late Late Show presenter.
In a statement, the RTÉ board said an issue was identified “in relation to the transparency of certain payments” to Mr Tubridy in late March, during a “routine audit” of its accounts.
Following a series of reviews, the RTÉ board found Mr Tubridy had earned €345,000 more than publicly declared by the broadcaster over a period of more than six years.
In his own statement, Mr Tubridy said he was “surprised by the announcements made in RTÉ's statement today regarding the errors in the reporting of its accounts.
“It is unfortunate that these errors are in relation to how RTÉ have reported payments made to me,” he said.
“This is a matter for RTÉ and I have no involvement in RTÉ's internal accounting treatment or RTÉ's public declarations in connection with such payments,” he said.
“Obviously, I’m disappointed to be at the centre of this story but unfortunately, I can’t shed any light on why RTÉ treated these payments in the way that they did nor can I answer for their mistakes in this regard,” he said.
A statement from NK Management, who represent Mr Tubridy, added that issues around the accounting and public declarations of payments were solely a matter for RTÉ.
“There is no issue whatsoever in relation to the payments being properly and lawfully due and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of Ryan Tubridy or NK Management,” it said.
A breakdown of the payments released by the board stated Mr Tubridy’s actual earnings were €75,000 more than stated publicly both last year and 2021.
His earnings were €56,000 higher than disclosed in 2020, €50,000 higher than publicly stated in 2019 and 2018, and €20,000 higher in 2017.
There was also a further payment of €18,750 for the first three months of this year, which was not included in the breakdown, bringing the total undeclared payments to €345,000.
The board said it had now directed Grant Thornton to review the contracts of the broadcaster’s top ten highest paid presenters, “to independently validate that all remuneration figures have been correctly stated and accounted for by RTÉ”.
The statement said that RTÉ has this week conducted an internal review of the reporting of the remuneration of its top 10 most highly paid, on air presenters.
“This review has found that the full cost to RTÉ of its contracts with the other such on air presenters, has been correctly reported,” it added.
The issue that prompted the review of Mr Tubridy’s earnings were payments of €150,000 made to the presenter by RTÉ, linked to a deal with a commercial partner, which the broadcaster did not name in its public statement but which is understood to be Renault Ireland.
There was no comment from Renault, the long-time sponsor of the Late Late Show.
“I can’t discuss any of our commercial agreements,” Paddy Magee, Renault Ireland country manager, said when contacted by The Irish Times.
The statement said under an agreement underwritten by RTÉ the host was guaranteed an extra €75,000 from the commercial partner, which he received in 2020 in exchange for a number of personal appearances.
However, the commercial partner did not renew the agreement for a second year, which meant further payments were made by RTÉ under the deal.
“Mr Tubridy received two payments of €75,000 (totalling €150,000), each in 2022 (being a payment for 2021 and a payment for 2022). It was these payments that prompted the review by Grant Thornton,” the statement said.
The €150,000 was paid to Mr Tubridy, via his agent, by RTÉ through a “barter account”, which is an account where goods and services are traded through an intermediary company, which charges a fee for its services.
This led to RTÉ undertaking a deeper review of payments to Mr Tubridy, following which it was established his pay had been “understated by RTÉ by a figure of €120,000 over the contract period of 2017-2019″.
“The circumstances that led to this understatement by RTÉ are currently under examination,” the board said.
It is understood that the board commissioned Grant Thornton to undertake the review within a day of the initial issues around payments coming to light.
It was only while investigating the more recent payments did the historic arrangement, relating to pre-Covid years, emerge.
Siún Ní Raghallaigh, chair of the RTÉ board, said the matter was a “serious breach of trust with the public”.
In a statement, she said: “On behalf of the board, I wish to apologise for what has occurred. It is clear that RTÉ has fallen short of the high standards that it sets for itself and are expected of it”.
The board had acted quickly to establish the facts when the issues came to light, she said.
“We are confident that the safeguards we have now put in place will ensure that nothing like this will happen again, and that good corporate governance is adhered to at all times,” she said.
In an interview on RTÉ Six One News programme on Thursday evening, Ní Raghallaigh said that Mr Tubridy would not be presenting his morning radio show on Friday morning amid the payments controversy.
Minister for the Media Catherine Martin, who has ministerial line responsibility for the national broadcaster at the Cabinet, said she was “extremely concerned” at the details of the higher-than-declared-earnings.
“The public rightly expect much higher standards of transparency and accountability from Ireland’s Public Service Broadcaster. It is unacceptable that these have not been met,” she said.
“It will be critical for the Board to identify whether there are wider governance issues that need to be examined and addressed, and to ensure that there is appropriate accountability for what has occurred,” she said.
Ms Martin said she would be meeting the chair of RTÉ's board on Monday, with officials from her department.
In the wake of the controversy over the payments to Mr Tubridy, RTÉ has said that a new deputy director general will act as editor-in-chief of the broadcaster.
The role of editor-in-chief, according to the RTÉ website, is held by RTÉ director general Dee Forbes, who is due to stand down from that role shortly and is understood to be on leave currently.
An email sent to staff on Thursday afternoon said that RTÉ's director of audience, channels and marketing Adrian Lynch has been appointed deputy director-general.
A spokesman for the RTÉ board confirmed the move and said that one of the duties of this role is the duty of editor in chief. The spokesman refused to answer questions regarding Ms Forbes. Ms Forbes did not respond to a request for comment.
