RTÉ have issued a statement rejecting Noel Kelly’s claim that it provided “incorrect” evidence to Oireachtas Committees in recent weeks.
Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly are set to face six hours of questioning by two Oireachtas Committees today.
The pair will appear before the Public Accounts Committee at 11.30am, and the Media Committee at 3pm.
In his opening statement, Noel disputed former Chief Financial Officer Breda O’Keefe’s claim that she had no knowledge that RTÉ had underwritten a commercial sponsorship of Ryan by Renault.
RTÉ labelled invoices of €75,000 payments as “consultancy fees” and the now-infamous barter account was used to pay them.
In a statement refuting that it provided the Oireachtas Committees with “incorrect” information, RTÉ said: “RTÉ rejects the claim that an incorrect version of events was presented to the Joint Oireachtas Committee and/or to the Dáil Committee of Public Accounts regarding RTÉ’s agreement to underwrite payments of €75,000 per contract year due to Mr Tubridy.”
“For clarity, the claim relates specifically to an email that was sent by the former CFO of RTÉ to NK Management on 20 February 2020, which is being characterised as a contractual commitment on the part of RTÉ to underwrite the payments in question.”
“RTÉ does not accept this characterisation,” the statement continued. “RTÉ’s position is that the email of 20 February 2020 formed part of the discussions and engagement between it and NK Management in relation to the proposed new TV and radio contract with Mr Tubridy/Tuttle Productions and did not comprise a binding legal or contractual commitment on its part.”
“RTÉ’s position is as per previous statements: that, until the verbal commitment given by the former Director General during the call on 7 May 2020, it had not agreed to underwrite the €75,000 payment per contract year.”
RTÉ was plunged into chaos 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.
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 suspension of RTÉ’s Director General Dee Forbes, who later resigned from her role.
Earlier this month, the RTÉ Board and executives arrived at Leinster House to provide evidence to the joint committee on tourism, culture, arts, sport and media amid the ongoing scandal.
The following day, they arrived at Leinster House once again, this time to face questioning from the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee.
