Ryan Tubridy’s agent Noel Kelly has shut down claims he would have walked from RTÉ if he wasn’t guaranteed the extra €75k payments.
The presenter and his agent appeared before the Public Accounts Committee today to face questioning over payments made to him by RTÉ.
RTÉ was plunged into chaos last month when it was revealed that their highest-paid presenter’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.
After the scandal came to light, it emerged that RTÉ underwrote a commercial sponsorship of Ryan by Renault.
The commercial partner only paid €75,000 to Tubridy once in 2020, and RTÉ paid out for the years 2021 and 2022.
RTÉ labelled two invoices of €75,000 payments as “consultancy fees”, and the now-infamous barter account was used to pay them.
During Ryan and Noel’s meeting with the PAC today, the presenter’s agent denied any suggestion they put pressure on the former Director-General Dee Forbes to make the payments.
“Not at all,” Mr Kelly said, “Quite the opposite.”
“The underwriting was about if the sponsor changed,” he insisted. “We never said RTÉ should pay for anything.”
Mr Kelly also claimed they assumed the payments they received “were from Renault”.
Throughout the hearing, Mr Kelly also insisted they acted on instruction from RTÉ “at all times”.
Tubridy’s agent was questioned about putting pressure on Ms Forbes following the release of a letter in which she promised the presenter’s pay wouldn’t be cut.
In July 2020, the former Director General wrote to Ryan confirming he wouldn’t see a salary reduction between April 2020 and March 2025.
The letter was 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.”
