Ryan Tubridy was “not well-served” by his advisers and it was important the presenter “owned a certain amount of responsibility” for the controversy surrounding his pay, RTÉ's director general Kevin Bakhurst has said, following the collapse of talks over Tubridy’s return to the airwaves.
In an interview on RTÉ on Thursday evening, Mr Bakhurst said Tubridy had been due to return to his usual 9am slot on September 4th with an agreed salary of €170,000 before the talks fell apart. Tubridy had also been planning to return the €150,000 at the centre of the payments controversy.
Mr Bakhurst said the talks formed part of his plans for lowering presenter salaries generally and that would happen when other contracts expired and were being renegotiated.
“I spoke to a significant number of staff in Radio One [about Tubridy’s position] who have worked closely with Ryan. Both his own team but other members of Radio One. And I made it very clear to Ryan that there was quite a strong division of views,” Mr Bakhurst told Prime Time.
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The negotiations hit a fresh obstacle on Wednesday evening when RTÉ sought clarity from Tubridy on part of a statement he issued in the immediate aftermath of the Grant Thornton report into the payments controversy which had been published earlier that day.
“It’s extremely disappointing [to lose him] and that’s why I had to weigh it so long and so hard and I put a lot of effort and time into trying to reach a resolution here,” Mr Bakhurst told RTÉ News.
“I don’t actually feel that Ryan was best-served by the people around him who advised him on making that statement.
“To get a statement thrown in at a late stage like that which questions a central part of the recovery of trust is not really helpful.”
Mr Bakhurst said the issue did not come down to the statement alone but that there was a need to take responsibility on both sides.
In his Wednesday statement, Tubridy insisted his “actual income” from RTÉ in 2020 and 2021 matched what the broadcaster originally published in its top earner tables.
These were the very figures revised in June when the RTÉ board learned the station had effectively paid him a total of €325,000 more than was publicly disclosed for the years between 2017-2022.
As first reported by The Irish Times on Wednesday evening, RTÉ sought clarity from Tubridy on the meaning of this statement, which deeply annoyed senior management figures who believed they had provided him with a route back to presenting his show.
“RTÉ has taken responsibility, has borne the vast majority of responsibility for what went wrong here. But I also [thought] it was important that Ryan himself owned a certain amount of responsibility for this and we had discussions about that,” Mr Bakhurst said.
He said the statement issued by Tubridy “muddied the waters somewhat” and it had been important for Grant Thornton and the RTÉ board to restate those earnings correctly.
“I don’t think it helps to undermine that. We need to all accept the restated earnings, that is the fact of it.”
Mr Bakhurst denied the move was petty, saying he had spent a great deal of time in recent weeks in negotiations.
“I felt we were in a good place, we had a core agreement for Ryan to come back and then the statement was issued which once again questioned the newly stated salaries which are correct.”
He said Tubridy was “shocked and disappointed” when he conveyed the decision on Thursday evening and that it had been a difficult conversation.
Mr Bakhurst did appear to leave the door open for a future return but would not be drawn on any timeline.
“I try to be a very fair person. I feel a lot of mistakes have been made and [there have] been some particularly big mistakes by RTÉ but also by Ryan and his advisers,” he said.
“I think now is not the right time for Ryan to come back. We need to focus on rebuilding trust with the audience but the door is not shut forever.”
Discussing the fallout of the controversy, Mr Bakhurst expressed some hope for a recovery in the RTÉ licence fee, with payments up in early August compared to July.
“I am hoping there is going to be some improvement in the licence fee as we demonstrate what RTÉ actually stands for.”
