Ryan Tubridy and Noel Kelly will appear before the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee on Tuesday, July 11th – as the investigations into the RTÉ payments scandal continue.
The state broadcaster 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.
Last Wednesday, 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.
Notably absent from Leinster House on both occasions were Ryan, his agent Noel Kelly and former Director General Dee Forbes.
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar called on the three parties to appear before an Oireachtas Committee.
Virgin Media News have since confirmed that Ryan and Noel will attend a public meeting of PAC next Tuesday morning.
According to RTÉ News, the pair offered to help the Oireachtas Media Committee next week with their inquiries into the payments scandal.
The public service broadcaster reported that a letter from Hayes Solicitors, on behalf of its clients Ryan and Noel, sent to the chair of the media committee Niamh Smyth, stated: “Mr Tubridy and Mr Kelly wish to fully cooperate and assist with your Committee’s investigations”.
