THE FIRST OF two Oireachtas hearings featuring Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly have come to a close.
Ahead of second committee, we take a look back at some of that standout moments from this morning.
Tubridy claimed he had “never seen anything like it” when referring to the media scrutiny surrounding the controversy he finds himself at the centre of.
“This is my first rodeo being in the public eye,” said Tubridy.
“I don’t know if any of you’ve been cancelled before but let me tell you, you don’t want to be there,” adds Tubridy.
“People have families.”
Fianna Fáil’s Cormac Devlin said there are “kids who are wondering why the Toyman is in the news so much?”
Tubridy replied that his “relationship with the children of Ireland is so important to me”.
“I know that sounds grandiose,” says Tubridy, “but I want them to be happy and hopeful and proud to be Irish and read lots of books and just be wonderful young people.”
Noel Kelly hit out at the reporting of the controversy and hailed Tubridy as “the most trusted man in Ireland”.
“Over the last three weeks. I’ve never seen such horrendous, horrendous reporting,” said Kelly.
“And suddenly the most trusted man in Ireland, Ryan Tubridy, it was like ‘throw him under the bus’. Why? Why?”
Turbridy listed “seven untruths” but Kelly has “untruths” of his own he wanted to raise.
He outrightly denied that he had a friendly relationship with former RTÉ director general Dee Forbes, who resigned in the wake of the payments controversy.
“I’ve only ever met Dee Forbes with her legal team,” said Kelly.
“I’ve never had a cup of tea with Dee Forbes, I have never met her for lunch, I have never met her for dinner, I don’t know Dee Forbes.”
Catherine Murphy said it was “strange” that Tubridy wants to go back to work with RTÉ “given all of the issues that you’ve documented in your booklet and the opening statement”.
“You obviously feel RTÉ has badly damaged you,” said Murphy.
Tubridy said it is the past three weeks that have been damaging and “not necessarily RTÉ as an institution”.
However, he acknowledged that he has his “beef obviously with some people” at RTÉ.
Alan Kelly labelled the ill-fated Toy Show musical an “unmitigated disaster”.
“From the outset, did you think this was a disaster and a bad idea and you wanted nothing to do with it?”
Tubridy said “people in our team were trying to dream big”.
But he adds: “I always wish them well with that, but it wasn’t for me.”
Imedla Munster raised a 2019 interview in which Tubridy said he was “haunted” by the idea of child poverty.
“You also said that you would accept cost cutting measures gracefully,” said Munster.
“But here we are, three or four years later, we know that that pay cut was subsidised by the deal.
“You knew that the separate deal was being done and that it would compensate for the pay cuts.”
Tubridy claimed “there is a misunderstanding here”.
“I would also urge you not to conflate somebody being well paid and somebody who might not have a conscience,” said Tubridy.
Bringing his opening remarks to a close, Noel Kelly hit out at the framing of the controversy.
He said Tubridy had been “made a poster boy for this scandal”.
“And that’s undeserved,” said Kelly.
“This is not the Ryan Tubridy scandal. This is the RTÉ scandal.”
Alan Kelly claimed nothing Noel Kelly said was “credible” and claimed: “You’ve got serious accountancy issues here.”
“I’ve got all of these emails coming in to me from these Nigerian cousins saying I won the lotto,” said Alan Kelly.
“And they’re instructing me to do X, Y, Z.
“I don’t do it. I think you’ve got serious accountancy issues here. I think your companies have serious accountancy issues here.
“Based on what the evidence you’re giving here, because the fact is, this is not how companies behave.”
Alan Kelly also disputed Tubridy’s reported pay cut.
“There was no 20% drop in salary in real terms, and to say so has no credibility whatsoever,” said Kelly.
“Given the €75,000 and the various different payments, it was absorbed in a different way, that is quite obvious.”
Marc Ó Cathasaigh noted that 79% of people listen to radio daily in Ireland, and noted that his household also tuned into Tubridy’s radio show.
Minutes later, Tubridy raised his hand to interrupt proceedings and thanked TD Marc Ó Cathasaigh for listening to his radio show.
Ó Cathasaigh clarified that it’s his “missus” who listens.
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