NEW RTÉ DIRECTOR-General Kevin Bakhurst met with Ryan Tubridy in person this week.

In a statement, RTÉ said the pair had a one-to-one meeting.

Former Late Late Show host Tubridy has been off air from his weekday radio show since a payments scandal broke at RTÉ last month and his future at the broadcaster remains in serious doubt.

RTÉ has been engulfed in controversy since it admitted it had underdeclared Tubridy’s earnings by €345,000 from 2017 to 2022.

The figure includes three €75,000 annual payments received by Tubridy for proposed public appearances for Renault, as part of a tripartite agreement involving the sponsor, RTÉ and the presenter.

The most controversial aspect of the deal was RTÉ’s decision to underwrite the payments, which effectively resulted in the publicly funded broadcaster covering the costs.

RTÉ said today that the pair had “a good, open, and constructive conversation and will meet again in a few weeks”. The broadcaster said it has no further comment to make.

In an interview with the Irish Times last Saturday, Backhurst said he would be contacting Tubridy to discuss his future with the broadcaster.

“I’ve got to judge a number of things here. One is the events of the past few weeks and the events of the last few days,” Backhurst said.

“But also, as I said, I want to talk to staff and I’ve already started doing that, and people who work in radio, and have worked with Ryan and other people who work in radio, and the leadership team.”

The Director General told the paper he wanted a decision on Tubridy’s future before the end of July.

Tubridy and his agent appeared before two Oireachtas committees last week where the presenter said he had been “publicly cancelled” and it was “touch and go” whether he would be allowed to return to his weekly radio programme.

He said he wants to return to RTÉ Radio as soon as possible “because it’s all I’ve got”.

“If I do go back to RTÉ, which I hope to, it’ll be a whole new world order,” Tubridy said.

With reporting from Press Association