RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

Hook was past it anyway. From a different era.

You ran away from the question when it was put to you yesterday.

Either he did something wrong (as per his statement) OR he lied in the statement.

There's no two ways about it.

The reason you won't answer the question is then you won't be able to keep up this nonsense "for no fault of his own".

It's this simple:

Either he did something wrong (as per his statement) OR he lied in the statement.

Scumbag comment trying to use mental illness as an insult.

Re the article covered this morning by Billy Keane who is a self processed friend of Tubridy , Keane says being on large salaries dosent make people any less human. This is a straw man argument. The issue, Billy is not whether the salary was large or not. The issue is the secrecy and sneakiness surrounding the payments. People like Billy Keane are deliberately missing the point, muddying the waters in the hope Tubridys reputation comes out of this intact. His fans will still have high regard for him lm sure, but many will see this whole sorry story as another grubby tale of corruption …

Did he pay tax on this extra income?

I don't know but I think the time is long overdue for a full Revenue audit of every payment made to these 'front companies' set up by these so-called top presenters to reduce their tax liability, and whether they were reported correctly. It wouldn't surprise me in the maneuvers RTE executed to conceal these payments they didn't adhere to tax or corporate reporting rules.

The whole arrangement must end. They should be on PAYE fixed time contracts and if they don't like it they can jog on out of RTE and let the door hit them on the way out. That arrangement would be more understandable if it is a 'gigging' time consultant or presenter role, not someone who signed a guaranteed multi year contract.

Exactly. One of the first rules of journalism is to never become the story.

It is not unusual and some change auditors every few years to avoid a cosy relationship.

The fun really starts when Audit is done by one Big firm while the Tax is done by another Big firm. Neither prepared to finalise their side, until they see the final version from the other side. Real childish bullxxxx

At the end of the day, RTÉ is a dodgy and shady organisation, the Tubridy payments have shown and proven that….and therefore dodgy people will be employed there and contracted there too. Culture is that way.

I rarely watch it apart from the odd bit of sport. If I watch 3–4 hours a week that’s tops….

piss poor.

at least if there are shady dealings and backhanders, have some fûcking quality to watch…..ridiculous dearth of quality.

This story is only a sample of what's going on , across the board through numerous departments, with tax payers money.

It's what I really hate about my country.

Agree with you on the content front anyway. I gave up watching it a number of years ago and never went back so I can only go on what I watched back in the day.

I don't think RTE knows what it is anymore. Is it a Public Service Broadcaster? If so it should only use the license fee for public information/news/current affairs/documentaries/Dail coverage and so on. It is a real hybrid though, getting the TV license income stream + advertising and sponsorship income. Why are they allowed to do that? Brings them into the commercial money making side of things I think and the can of worms we are witnessing now.

There are enough commercial stations out there to provide the drivel like Love Island, Fair City, blah blah etc. What public service remit are these shows providing anyway via RTE?

I feel very strongly that the rot set in when broadcasting was opened up to others like TV3, Virgin and so on. RTE then felt it had to compete. But it should never have been permitted to do that IMO. Too many broadcasters chasing a very small pool.

The diehards will continue to watch/listen to RTE and that's fine, but it should I think just be for public service broadcasting boring as that might seem.