RTÉ paid Ryan Tubridy hundreds of thousands of euro more over several years than it ever declared.
In a statement its board said between 2017 and 2022, the former Late Late Show host received a series of payments totalling €345,000 above his annual published salary.
The statement said that under a separate agreement ‘Tubs‘ was guaranteed an additional annual income of €75,000 which was intended to come from a commercial partner.
The payment in 2020 did come from a commercial partner in exchange for some personal appearances.
As a result Mr Tubridy received two payments totalling €150,000 in 2022 for that year and the previous year.
These payments were recorded in what is known as a “barter account” which are commonly used in marketing and advertising to enable goods or services to be exchanged for money.
The statement says between 2017 and 2019, Mr Tubridy received a total of €120,000 more in payments from the station than had been previously publicly stated.
The reasons for these payments are currently under investigation, it added.
The board has requested auditors Grant Thornton to review the contracts of highly paid presenters to independently validate all remuneration is correctly stated and accounted for.
In a statement, RTÉ Chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh described the issue as a matter of profound regret for the board and apologised.
“We are well aware that this is a serious breach of trust with the public,” she said.
“On behalf of the Board, I wish to apologise for what has occurred. It is clear that RTÉ has fallen short of the high standards that it sets for itself and are expected of it.”
Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media of Ireland Catherine Martin has expressed concern:
”I was advised in March 2023 that an issue had come to light in the course of the audit of the RTÉ 2022 accounts, and that a fact finding review had been commissioned by the Audit and Risk Committee of the RTÉ Board.
I am extremely concerned at the details which were contained in RTÉ’s statement today, on foot of that review being completed. I have spoken with the RTÉ Chairperson today, and have subsequently written to her requesting that she meet with me and officials of the Department. The meeting has been arranged for Monday.
I have asked the Chair to set out in that meeting, in detail, the issues involved, the steps the Board is taking to deal with the matter, the follow on action that will be required, and the timeline for these actions.
The public rightly expect much higher standards of transparency and accountability from Ireland’s Public Service Broadcaster. It is unacceptable that these have not been met. It will be critical for the Board to identify whether there are wider governance issues that need to be examined and addressed, and to ensure that there is appropriate accountability for what has occurred. It will be equally important for the Board to demonstrate that it is putting in place appropriate structures and processes to prevent a recurrence of a matter of this nature.”
