A second Grant Thornton report has confirmed RTÉ presenter Ryan Tubridy waived a €120,000 exit free which he was entitled at the end of his contract.
The former Late Late Show host told an Oireachtas Committee hearing last month that because of how RTÉ reported his decision to waiver the payment in its accounts, the narrative became that he had taken the money and hidden it – which he said was not true.
RTÉ’s Chief Financial Officer Richard Collins said that “for an unexplained reason that €120,000 was credited against his earnings between 2017 and 2019. That’s under investigation at the moment”.
The RTÉ board have since published phase two of the second report by Grant Thornton – commissioned by the Audit and Risk Committee to examine issues surrounding the public disclosure of Ryan’s earnings.
The report confirms: “A payment of the €120,000 exit fee was not made by RTÉ to either Mr. Tubridy or Tuttle under the Tubridy 2015 Agreement, as Mr. Tubridy has, following negotiations waived the entitlement.”
The report also confirmed Ryan’s earnings figures between 2017 and 2019 were publicly understated due to adjustments made by RTÉ’s financial department, and that neither Ryan nor talent agency NK Management had any involvement in the adjustments for the examined period.
You can read the full report here.
RTÉ was plunged into chaos earlier this summer when it was revealed that Ryan’s earnings were publicly understated by €345,000 over the last six years.
The issue was identified during a routine audit of RTÉ’s 2022 accounts, prompting an independent review of the matter by auditing organisation Grant Thornton.
The RTÉ Board issued an apology over the error, and later Ryan also apologised for not questioning RTÉ over his published earnings.
The scandal resulted in the resignation of a number of RTÉ’s key staff members – including former Director General Dee Forbes and former Director of Strategy Rory Coveney.
RTÉ’s former Commercial Director Geraldine O’Leary later announced her early retirement.
