RTÉ has released what they promised to be a “comprehensive statement” addressing the misstating of payments to presenter Ryan Tubridy from 2020 to 2022.
The full statement, from the Interim Deputy Director-General Adrian Lynch, can be read here.
It is important to note that, at the time of publishing this piece, Dee Forbes, the former Director General had not commented on the statement and had not contributed to the statement in any way.
Here are some of the key points in the statement:
- The statement claims that no member of the RTÉ Executive Board, other than the Director General, had all the necessary information in order to understand that the publicly declared figures for Ryan Tubridy could have been wrong.
- The commercial deal between Ryan Tubridy and Ryan’s agent was arranged through RTÉ’s Commerical Director, allegedly at the direction of Dee Forbes.
- A credit note for the extra payments were issued at the request of Dee Forbes and Ryan was unaware of such credit note.
- Negotiations for Ryan’s new contract and salary, took place from March 2020 until October 2020, during the COVID pandemic. Mainly over Zooms and email correspondence.
Through her own statement this week, Dee slammed the RTÉ Board for their treatment of her since the payments scandal hit headlines.
When contacted for a comment regarding RTÉ’s statement this afternoon, a spokesperson for Ms. Forbes told Goss.ie that she wouldn’t be commenting further.
RTÉ was plunged into chaos last week 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.
On Thursday, 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 has since resigned from her role.
The statement, which was due out at 3pm today, does not explain the under-reporting of his pay between 2017 and 2019 as it is the subject of a separate review.
Since the scandal broke, Minister Catherine Martin has ordered a full review of RTÉ’s governance and culture.
The review will assess whether RTÉ’s governance framework is fit for purpose, and will review its approach to financial management, the workplace culture in RTÉ, and relations between senior management and staff.
The earnings of RTÉ’s top presenters will also be subject to an external review to see if their reported salaries are actually correct.
After Ryan, the highest earners are Joe Duffy, Claire Byrne, Ray D’Arcy and Miriam O’Callaghan.
All four of the top broadcasters have addressed the scandal over the past number of days, with Claire, Joe, Miriam and Ray all disclosing their salaries.
Brendan O’Connor, Aine Lawlor, Bryan Dobson, Mary Wilson, and George Lee have also issued statements saying their publicly stated earnings from RTÉ are correct.
On Tuesday afternoon, around 200 RTÉ employees joined a protest in Donnybrook organised by the National Union of Journalists.
Speaking at the protest, RTÉ correspondent Sinéad Hussey admitted she feels “let down” by the situation.
She told RTÉ News: “I feel very let down as a staff member, but I feel very let down for the public.”
“The public that we ask every day: ‘Can we come into your house? Can we interview you?’,” Sinéad continued.
“And we feel very betrayed and I think it’s important to show today that we won’t accept this, we want RTÉ to reform, so that this doesn’t happen again.”
Siún Ní Dhuinn, who works with RTÉ Digital, said: “I’m protesting because I’m disappointed and I’m angry. Like the public, the staff feel the same. We’ve been let down by senior management, by the board, by the exec. So we’re here to protest that and we want better standards for the public which we’re serving every day.”
Drivetime researcher Fiona Donnellan said: “I think we need way more transparency in the organisation. Staff feel really betrayed by what’s been revealed over the last six days and we want answers.
