PRESENTER RYAN TUBRIDY was paid over €25,000 by public broadcaster RTÉ while he was off air earlier this year following revelations about secret payments made to him by the national broadcaster, that meant his pay exceeded his publicly reported salary.
Documents provided to the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee show that Tubridy had negotiated a radio contract with RTÉ securing his pay after his time at the helm of the Late Late Show ended.
Answering a question put to the broadcaster by the committee, an RTÉ spokesperson wrote that once Tubridy’s last Late Late Show season ended negotiations commenced with the presenter’s production company for a radio only contract.
The spokesperson said that Tubridy’s agent was “unhappy” with the remuneration being offered to his client, and that the then RTÉ Chief Financial Officer Richard Collins proposed a short term agreement be put in place to cover radio services until September of this year, or until a new contract was entered into.
Tubridy’s 2020 contract, minus what he was paid for TV work, was the basis for this short term agreement, the spokesperson wrote.
The fee that was agreed to was a rate of €12,500 per month, and this was paid to Tubridy for the months of June July and August. He was off air for two of these months, from 22 June.
RTÉ put out a statement in which it said that Ryan Tubridy was paid by RTÉ while off air at the broadcaster’s request. Director General Kevin Bakhurst had already confirmed this.
The chair of the Public Accounts Committee Brian Stanley said that it would investigate these revelations further.
Tubridy is no longer a presenter with RTÉ after negotiations for a fresh contract between the presenter and broadcaster broke down in August.
He is due to start a new job with Virgin Radio UK.
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