These are the seven ‘material untruths’ Ryan Tubridy wants to address before the Oireachtas Committees

Ryan Tubridy will today tell the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee that there are several “material untruths” about the ongoing RTÉ scandal that he wants to address.

The 50-year-old and his agent Noel Kelly are set to face six hours of questioning about the ongoing RTÉ scandal by two Oireachtas Committees today.

The pair will appear before the Public Accounts Committee at 11.30am, and the Media Committee at 3pm.

These are the seven “material untruths” he wants to address:

1. The claim that he did not take a pay cut from RTE in 2020
2. The suggestion that his “decision to retire from the Late Late Show was prompted by this whole debacle?”
3. That he was covertly or secretly ‘overpaid’ by RTÉ
4. That he was aware that RTÉ were trying to conceal payments to him
5. That there was a secret agreement with Renault that he tried to conceal
6. That RTÉ’s underwriting of Renault’s payment obligations was a secret
7. That he did not ask RTE about their under-declarations of his earnings when they released the 2017, 2018 and 2019 earnings on the one day, January 20th 2021

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.

During the initial hearing, it emerged that RTÉ underwrote 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.