Ryan Tubridy has admitted he’s “not without blame” in the RTÉ payments scandal.
The presenter made the confession during his meeting with the Oireachtas Media Committee today, during which he and his agent Noel Kelly faced questioning over payments made to him by RTÉ.
During the hearing, Fianna Fáil Senator Malcolm Byrne asked Ryan: “Do you believe in all of this that you have done anything wrong?”
The presenter said the only “reasonable and fair” way to answer that is: “I should’ve called out the figures when they were relased all in one day on 20 January 2021.”
“They were wrong, we had requested they change them before dispatches, but that day we didn’t…”
“So yes, I’m not without blame,” he confessed.
RTÉ was plunged into chaos last month when it was revealed that their highest-paid presenter’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 issue was partly the result of a commercial deal which saw Ryan receive additional income from Renault, which was guaranteed and underwritten by RTÉ.
The commercial partner only paid €75,000 to Tubridy once in 2020, but RTÉ paid out for the years 2021 and 2022.
The manner in which these payments were recorded led to an understatement of his earnings.
RTÉ labelled two invoices of €75,000 payments to Ryan as “consultancy fees”, and the now-infamous barter account was used to pay them.
Ryan and his agent Noel Kelly have maintained they didn’t know the payments came from RTÉ, and believed they came from Renault.
