RTÉ has stated that the former host of The Late Late Show, Ryan Tubridy, and his agent, Noel Kelly, have requested data access to RTÉ.
According to a report published on Sunday in The Irish Times, the requests made by Mr. Tubridy and Mr. Kelly primarily concerned internal correspondence about Mr. Tubridy’s compensation, which sparked the broadcaster’s June 2023 issues.
In a statement to RTÉ News, the broadcaster confirmed: “RTÉ has received data access requests from both parties. These require a significant amount of work that we are currently processing.”
The statement confirms that “neither of the parties referred to have taken any legal action against RTÉ” in response to a question about whether Mr. Tubridy or Mr. Kelly has filed a lawsuit against the organisation.
According to The Irish Times, the data requests are “circumscribed by time and other limitations, and are focused on retrieving information relevant to the 2023 controversy.”
The presenter hosted the RTÉ late-night talk show from 2009 to 2023.
However, RTÉ was plunged into chaos in the summer of 2023 when it was revealed that Ryan’s salary had been understated by €345k over six years.
This led to the presenter signing off from The Late Late Show after 14 years, with Patrick Kielty taking over.
The broadcaster previously hosted RTÉ Radio 1’s coveted 9-10am slot, but was pulled from the airwaves in June 2023 when the payments scandal erupted.
While the presenter was set to return to the station in that September, contract negotiations broke down between him and RTÉ – and he lost his radio show for good.
The issue was identified during a routine audit of RTÉ’s 2022 accounts, prompting an independent review of the matter by the auditing organisation Grant Thornton.
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 resignation of a number of RTÉ’s key staff members, including former Director General Dee Forbes and former Director of Strategy Rory Coveney.
During the hearing, Ryan told an Oireachtas Media Committee that he would pay back the money he received in advance of him doing six more personal appearances for ex-commercial Late Late Show sponsor Renault.
He had said at the time that: “If that work is not called upon to be done, of course, the money goes back”.
However, during a Oireachtas Committee hearing in February 2024, RTÉ’s Director General Kevin Bakhurst had said that Ryan had not repaid the €150,000.
He also said presenter salaries negotiated since the salary cap was announced have “come in below that”.
Mr. Bakhurst said in today’s hearing: “It’s not been paid back… we ask if he’s going to do it, but we’ve had no progress on that.”
“And as you know we have no legal basis unfortunately.”
He continued: “On the presenter’s salary cap, the answer is that every single presenter that we’ve negotiated since I announced that, has come in at a level below that.”
He went on: “And as I said, as other presenter’s contracts come up, they will also come in at a level or below it.”
