RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

Hyperbollix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120848210#Comment_120848210

Saw this last night and didn't know who that guy was til I later read "Fintan Drury"

What an absolute plank. The dog in the street knows RT was vastly overpaid for his talents for 10 to 15 years by RTE. The idea that he was some kind of Irish Conan O' Brien or Micheal Parkinson, who had to be stuffed with cash and sweetener deals in order to keep his services is the greatest crock of shíte going. Tubs is an RTE lifer. He neither wants or has the ability to leave the state broadcaster because he knows he'd never get a better deal than suckling on the RTE teat until his retirement day.

Drury's idea that "entertainers" are and should be paid multiples of the plebs who work around them sums him up perfectly. I'm sure he still believes bankers and other exhalted members of the upper class deserve vast salaries too, despite the fact it has little to nothing to do with performance or ability.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120849995#Comment_120849995

I think as a public figure Lottie is open to criticism, though I very little of it here, I am just browsing the thread.

criticizing Lottie's lack of presentation skills is fair comment.

criticizing RTÉ for employing Lottie due to who her father was is also fair comment.

evolvingtipperary101

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850013#Comment_120850013

Don’t forget he is in the NK stable

evolvingtipperary101

After how many hours of committees ..

Not one single credible answer given by RTE or Tubridy r.e. the Renault Tri-partite agreement

- No mention of €75,000

- No RTE signature

- Signed in April/2023 by Tubridy

- Only a 1 year deal despite 3 €75,000 payments

GerardKeating

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120848824#Comment_120848824

Are you say that no "nice" programs are shown after 11pm?

bureau2009

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120849792#Comment_120849792

Very good point.

Even BEFORE this scandal broke the entire nation couldn't make sense of the ridiculously high salaries for presenters. Since these revelations people are even more questioning now.

I don't have any sense that Bakhurst will rigorously examine issues like Tubridy's return to the airwaves; dealing with NKM in the future; and continuing to pay eye-watering fees to, very often, untalented "talent".

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850049#Comment_120850049

I acknowledged the last bit. And it's absolutely fair to be critical of someone not having the necessary talent, but I'm talking about how personal people get about her. And the way they blame her for RTE's policy.

Hyperbollix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850004#Comment_120850004

Painfully transparent piece of saccharine sewage. It's amazing to me that that kind of stuff works on so many people.

"The real talent are the hair, makeup, sound people, even the cleaners. They don't deserve anything approaching my salary of course, but they are the real stars at RTE........ cough"

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850089#Comment_120850089

Have they here or just in general?

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850040#Comment_120850040

I often thought of that poem reading this thread and watching the shenanigans at the two committees! 🤣🤣

Jump_In_Jack

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850058#Comment_120850058

Read between the lines, Kelly threatened Forbes that he’d sue for the breach of contract which would have exposed this dodgy practice with the slush fund, so she arranged with O’Leary to have him paid off via a fraudulent invoice and UK company name to Kelly’s other company account.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850101#Comment_120850101

In general.

tobefrank321

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120849995#Comment_120849995

I agree the line is crossed occasionally by people and its important not to overdo criticism of individuals who haven't done too much wrong.

I'm not going to criticise Lottie Ryan going forward, not that i did too much. She has benefitted from nepotism, but then again so has an awful amount of people in RTE on front and behind the camera and microphone.

Viscount Aggro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120849784#Comment_120849784

Bakhurst has said the advertising clients are sticking with RTE, and that the TV licence fee revenue is holding up well.

Hyperbollix

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850121#Comment_120850121

He would say that of course. Like a bank CEO trying to stave off a run

bucketybuck

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850121#Comment_120850121

He had to say that. Imagine he said that license fee revenue had dropped sharply, a lot of people would immediately think, "well if everybody else is stopping payment then I will too".

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850040#Comment_120850040

I actually quoted some of that poem earlier in the thread. Absolutely spot on.

RoTelly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850111#Comment_120850111

I agree. But I would say one thing

If I were Lottie I'd be making sure I was put down as a member of staff, and if RTÉ have to do this they should be looking to move her into an office job / research.

This goes for all contractors who could be done away with tomorrow.

Leg End Reject

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850121#Comment_120850121

We were also told at one stage we didn't need a bailout and were going to have a soft landing ...

Karppi

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850121#Comment_120850121

Let's see how that pans out when the next few month's figures come out. There's going to be a lag in reporting, and following the machinations in the last few weeks, mainly in July, we'll probably be waiting until at least the middle of August before even the management accounts are available to Bakhurst and Co - let alone us!!

Cluedo Monopoly

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850121#Comment_120850121

How the hell would he know that about TV license fees? The story is really only 3 weeks old and the recent revelations will anger people even more (including O'Keefe's crazy package). My license is up in September, I'll be sending it to the Minister.

Viscount Aggro

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850138#Comment_120850138

Are you saying he is being untruthful?

I dont think there will be immediate hit to the licence fee revenues, as most people renew it annually.

Joseph Schumpeter

My thoughts on how RTE will spin the Huw Edwards BBC scandal and (laughs out loud) the Hollywood workers strike in their favour. In relation to the BBC the parallels are that there is potential legal ramifications for a publicly funded television organisation regarding one of their top earners and most known presenters. There is an abuse of position in both, with Edwards it was an abuse of power, with Tubridy an abuse of the false image of him as a top earner. Although both cases are completely opposite they are both national broadcasters and the RTE oligarchy will try and spin it out in their favour. Tubridy was caught out trying to get more pay, he forced his employer into a tricky situation. I reckon RTE will spin it as Tubridy = good, let this blow over nothing illegal done as opposed to BBC scandal.

Furthermore, in light of the Hollywood actors and writers strike, they will try and cast themselves in a similar light to the studios while at the same time straddling both sides of the argument and also casting themselves in the same position as the struggling artists where they can’t afford to pay the salaries of high flying stars. This is laughable. Tubridy is like a Lego plastic man walking around with his Pinocchio nose getting longer and longer the more he speaks. He is also, strident, contrived and wooden. The public do t like meanness or executive decision making and are rallying around him. They believe his mind yourselves act and don’t hold him responsible for being a greedy bugger, demanding pay not be cut whilst lying to the public about it.

Hollywood studios operate as privately run enterprises, driven by market forces and profit motives. RTE doesn’t it’s a monopoly and publicly funded. The pursuit of efficiency and profitability is essential for Hollywood studios’ sustainability. In contrast, as a publicly run organization, RTE may face bureaucratic inefficiencies, such as corrupt payments in the case of Forbes, and lack the same profit-driven incentives to maximize productivity and financial success. Moreover, placing a precedence on workers rights and the inability to fire employees it creates a sick industry and organisation where executives can’t/won’t fire top talent and low hanging fruit.

The studios' stance in the strike, aimed at dictating terms and maintaining control, could be seen as a necessary response to protect their interests and maintain a balance between the demands of creative professionals and the industry's sustainability. Cast this is in relation to RTE and the inability to clear out the inefficiencies by firing dead wood employees every cycle. Financial health is hard to grasp for people who don’t have to perform to save their jobs. And who don’t have competition for their jobs in the form of competing organisations. The demands of the striking workers are unrealistic according to Disneys Bob Iger and the maintenance of graded pay to top performers and studio officials is not required to sustain top talent in a private sector industry. 

 Hollywood studios operate in a highly competitive global market, where financial success is crucial for their survival. If the studios were to concede to the strikers' demands, it could potentially lead to increased production costs and reduced profitability, threatening their economic viability. This is in direct opposition to RTE which is a financial black hole. By sacking the low hanging fruit the studios save another 100,000 jobs by not going bust. On the other hand, RTE's inefficiency and financial mismanagement, as suggested by the scandal involving Ryan Tubridy, may contribute to its loss-making status, highlighting the need for reform.

The RTE scandal involving Tubridy's undeclared payments raises questions about the organization's integrity and transparency. If RTE and Tubridy were to suffer negative consequences, such as loss of reputation or legal ramifications, it would serve as a deterrent and encourage reforms within the organization, ensuring greater accountability and preventing further corruption.

In fairness the above cases couldn’t be further apart from each other in reality but each case is involved with the entertainment industry in each country respectively. I have no doubt the RTE socialists will try to spin it as the same circumstances and in their favour.

Brian Scan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120838643#Comment_120838643

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120838656#Comment_120838656

Stephen Merchant, surely.

jippo nolan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120849117#Comment_120849117

Sure, didn’t they arrange her to win “Dancing with the Staff”

HildaOgdenx

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850096#Comment_120850096

I also wondered when I read that he said that about not wanting to be called the 'talent' in future - had that ever troubled him in the past?

Somehow I doubt it as he presumably interacted with people who had taken salary cuts while he had not. Not in the sense anyone else understands the phrase anyway.

That swan song of his was definitely made in the expectation that he will be back where he feels he belongs, any day now at all. 'My salary / contract should be made public' (I forget his exact words) but he was talking as though it's just a matter of time before everything in the RTE garden is rosy again. For him.

And on that note, I'm not sure Bakhurst is enough of a new broom there. Time will tell, I suppose.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120849092#Comment_120849092

A star is a massive ball of gas.

Chopper Dave

A few observations from yesterday - I thought it was a bad day out for RTE generally - they didn't refute a lot of the more substantial points that were made by RT/NK. Yes there is a court of public opinion which will most likely damn both sides of this but there are other Courts as well and I don't think RTE can defend a lot of what has gone on both before and since the GT report became known about.

A lot of talk about "Talent' in the last few weeks - you can be talented in many ways but I don't think there is a lot of talent or capability on the RTE Board or Executive. Surprised to see AL getting the DDG gig and I would say KB can't have been happy with the interactions AL had yesterday (what was he thinking trying to read that text out?).

There was also a question about accountability and again I thought KB was very weak in pointing to the changes made. Nearly all of these include people like GOL and DF who were going anyway - that's not accountability. Same for the likes of BOK and MD who have left and no longer seem interested in coming to parliamentary committee. I think he will find it very difficult to remove some of the remaining people without making substantial exit payments or risking unfair dismissal cases and I'd say he knows this.

Brian Scan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120838769#Comment_120838769

Or Dana Carvey.

hotmail.com

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120850203#Comment_120850203

Don't know why RTE cover these foreign media stories given the mess they're in.

You'd think they'd just shut up about other media at the moment.