An RTÉ letter shows that Dee Forbes promised that Ryan Tubridy’s pay would not be cut by the broadcaster.
In July 2020, the former Director General wrote to the presenter confirming he wouldn’t see a salary reduction between April 2020 and March 2025.
The letter is addressed to the 50-year-old at the address of his Tuttle Productions Ltd. company.
The letter reads: “The purpose of this correspondence is to record in writing our guarantee and undertaking that the fees set out in this Agreement will be paid by RTÉ without any reductions and RTÉ shall not make any request or enquiry from you in relation to a reduction in the agreed fees during the currency of the Agreement save as to those that might be imposed by changes to legislation.”
Just weeks ago, RTÉ was plunged into chaos when it was revealed that Ryan Tubridy’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’s Gavan Reilly later reported that Ryan and Noel will be invited before the Oireachtas Media Committe.
However, this isn’t expected until the week after next, or possibly even the week after that.
