RT secret payments scandal: Ryan Tubridy clashes with broadcaster to claim his contract has ended

[ad_1]

RT released the statement this morning that talks over a new contract were on hold after the presenters quit his role as host of The Late Late Show.

Mr Tubridy’s previous contract with RT started in July 2020 and was due to end in March 2025.

Ryan Tubridy quit The Late Late Show in May. RT has written to its agent that the contract, including all arrangements contained therein, has ended, according to the statement.

Negotiations had begun regarding his radio responsibilities. These negotiations have been halted, like all negotiations, in accordance with the statement of the board of directors.

However, a source close to Mr Tubridy told the Irish Independent.

A source close to the presenter said Mr Tubridy did not believe his contract was terminated and was considering challenging that claim by the national broadcaster.

We reject the proposal to terminate the contract. The precedent is that when contracts change like this and one item, be it television or radio, disappears, the contract is changed to reflect the change, but it is not terminated.

We’ll make that very clear on RT. We believe it’s black and white, the source added.

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar criticized RT’s statement yesterday for blaming the secret money fiasco on former chief executive Dee Forbes.

We don’t believe former CEO Dee Forbes was the only person aware of these events, Mr Varadkar said speaking in the Dil during Leaders’ Questions.

Tubridy did not receive an exit fee and the revenue he received was what he was contractually entitled to, RT board chairman Sin N Raghallaigh will tell the Oireachtas media committee.

She will also apologize to TDs and senators on the media committee for the simply false information the state broadcaster previously provided to politicians.

Mr Varadkar said RT’s four-week deadline to investigate further payments to Ryan Tubridy between 2017 and 2019 was also unsatisfactory.

Leaders should explain why it should take four weeks, he said. I do not understand that.

He repeated that it currently appeared that only one of the top 10 stations received a clandestine payment.

Sinn Fin TD Pearse Doherty told Dil it’s just not believable that RT’s top brass aren’t aware of a romance deal for Ryan Tubridy.

More than half of the board knew about the negotiations, Doherty suggested.

RT has a secret deal and an elaborate plan to cover it up, he said.

The Taoiseach said the revelations had shaken public confidence, even though the vast majority of RT would have known nothing about it and would certainly not have benefited from it in any way.

Labor Party leader Ivana Bacik said everyone in the Oireachtas was still in the dark about the situation after RT’s statement.

She offered her solidarity with RT employees who had spoken so eloquently about their sense of betrayal and breach of trust.

It was amazing, as RT Education correspondent Emma OKelly had said, that someone earning 440,000 needed to get more money, and get it in secret, she said.

Pearse Doherty said RT provided selective information about hidden payments to Ryan Tubridy and asked RT about the issues at the heart of this fiasco.

That leaves more questions than answers. And reading RT’s statement, you’d be led to believe that Dee Forbes was the only person in the know. But that’s just not believable.

More than half of the board knew about the business contract, at a time of pay cuts for workers and when people were struggling to pay the annual fee during this cost of living crisis.

In order to falsely portray Ryan Tubridy taking a pay cut, RT created the cherished deal and an elaborate plan to cover it up, Mr Doherty said.

Senior RT officials knew there was a separate deal between RT executives and Ryan Tubridys’ agent, hidden from the public.

This privileged agreement involved Renault paying 75,000 to Ryan Tubridy, but this would be reimbursed by RT via a separate account.

Ryan Tubridy would also attend Renault’s private events while RT would cover all costs.

We now know that it was the commercial director who negotiated this side deal with Renault. She was the one who agreed with Ryan Tubridys agent that the bills would be paid through the barter account.

She arranged payment through the barter account, and none of this would be known and we just had to read the statement from RT.

The fact is that RT executives knew that this contract was being negotiated. RT’s chief financial officer, content director, audience director, all had some knowledge of these negotiations.

Many of them were aware of the business arrangement between Ryan Tubridy and Renault, oddly underwritten by RT.

The former general manager was responsible. there is no doubt.

But she was not the only one who knew of the taxpayers’ money being spent without recourse to the Council, the Oireachtas, the Minister or the taxpayer.

And that at the heart of it all is public money. We need to get to the bottom of things quickly.

Auditing a Scandal: How Ryan Tubridy RT’s Payout Fury Unfolded

The former host was taken off the air this week for editorial reasons while the situation unfolds.

In a statement Friday, Tubridy said he was disappointed with the decision.

I look forward to returning to the radio show, a job I love, as soon as possible and I hope my listeners and colleagues will appreciate my candor about it, he said.

He unreservedly apologized for not asking questions or asking for answers about the circumstances that led to the publication of the incorrect figures.

He added: I did not and I take responsibility for my failure to do so.

10 things we learned from RT’s statement

Mr Tubridy stepped down as host of the Friday night chat show in May after 14 years at the helm. He first announced his decision in March.

It comes as the Oireachtas media committee hearing is due to take place at 1.30pm today, where RT officials are due to answer questions about undisclosed payment arrangements between 2017 and 2022.

The national broadcaster released a statement yesterday saying only former chief executive Dee Forbes could have known that the publicly reported compensation figures for the star were understated.

Ms Forbes, who resigned from her post on Monday, will not take part in today’s Dil committee, citing health reasons.

She will also not attend Thursday’s Public Accounts Committee (PAC) hearing on the Tubridy payments scandal.

Ms Forbes, through her lawyers, told the committee that she was under medical supervision.

[ad_2]