RTÉ chief financial officer Richard Collins and his predecessor Breda O’Keeffe have clashed over responsibility for the Ryan Tubridy pay controversy, each saying the other had the critical role.
In remarks to Grant Thornton, Mr Collins and Ms O’Keeffe took opposing positions in the investigation into RTÉ's underdeclaraton of Tubridy’s 2017-2019 pay by €120,000 in 2021.
Ms O’Keeffe, who left RTÉ in March 2020, said Mr Collins and auditors Deloitte “incorrectly” relied on a Tubridy/RTÉ side letter when adjusting his declared pay downwards.
The original draft side letter proposed setting off an unpaid €120,000 end-of-contract bonus, which Tubridy waived, from his declared 2017-2019 pay. The clause was removed after Tubridy’s agent Noel Kelly objected but the adjustment was still made, conveying the impression the presenter received less than €500,000 each year when he didn’t.
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Mr Collins took up his role in January 2020 in succession to Ms O’Keeffe, who had led pay talks with Tubridy that were coming to a head in early 2020.
Mr Collins said he was new to RTÉ “for much of the relevant period” and that Ms O’Keeffe remained for the first 2½ months of his tenure. “Ms O’Keeffe had been involved in the negotiations and discussions relating to the Tubridy 2020 agreement since their inception in October 2019.”
Given the Covid crisis, Mr Collins was told to prioritise a survival plan for RTÉ and was “not involved” in Tubridy pay talks.
“My role was not to reopen or reaudit the [earlier] proposed accounting treatment,” he said in an apparent reference to the draft side letter.
“It was not communicated to me that the intent had changed and whether this in any way invalidated the proposed accounting treatment.”
For her part, Ms O’Keeffe said she was “not responsible for or involved” in reporting Tubridy’s earnings.
“When I left RTÉ no agreement had been reached with Mr Tubridy on his 2015-2020 contract termination or the terms of his new contract for the period 2020-2025,” she said.
“Mr Collins was intimately involved in all aspects of the CFO role from February 2020,” she said.
“Most importantly significant changes were made post my leaving RTÉ in the negotiation of the €120,000 exit fee waiver that had not been agreed by the time I left RTÉ.
“The reporting of Mr Tubridy’s earnings in January 2021 was the responsibility of the CFO who replaced me and who, by January 2021, had been In that position for a year, and Deloitte, the RTÉ auditors.”
