RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

In retrospect, Tubs would have been far better hosting some good old fashioned TV game show. Low maintenance, like Winning Streak or The Lyrics Board. He could have been an Irish Bruce Forsythe.

However, I suspect Tubs regards himself way too highly for that.

I think RTE have abandoned that format anyway.

Objectively, Tubs was always a divisive figure hosting the Late Late. Like some sort of Golden Boy promoted well beyond his station, bluffing and sweet talking his way along.

There could be an abuse of power, it seems Dee Forbes signed off on the use of this barter account following a meeting with Noel Kelly, was she in her rights to do this, did she get advice on the contract from her Commercial Director or anyone on the board of RTÉ or did she unilaterally sign off on it. This is why I think Geraldine O'Leary has decided that all of her communications are coming through her solicitors. But only time will tell.

Largely speaking outside the standard Chat show format RTÉ has drop most Entertainment programming from the roster of programmes. Even Tiernan has been come standard RTÉ chat show fair.

I think people managing their money down to a 13.33 per month DD is a lot smaller cohort than the ones who signed up for convenience purposes.

Regarding the brazen it out point, perhaps they should do that. But by signing up to the DD, they made themselves more visible than others and cancelling DD’s won’t be straight forward or free of consequences. Thanks for the link, and I quote what they say about cancelling DD’s.

“Non-receipt of any instalment due on your television licence fee will result in the revocation of the licence and you will then be obliged to purchase a replacement licence in full or face prosecution for the breach of Broadcasting Legislation.”

From the above, any DD’s paid for the current licence don’t seem to be credited to you, at least initially. That’s a neat trick

Brian Stanley has never personally been involved in a fraud case.

It's simplistic targeting groups as Shinners, Blueshirts etc. There's plenty across all parties involved in fraud, and not involved in fraud.

Fraud: 'wrongful or criminal deception intended to result in financial or personal gain.'

Yes Tubridy is definitely involved in wrongful deception.

He is the chair of the PAC and is saying this as the chair of the PAC and not as a SF TD. Jesus the RT defenders won't stop defending the indefensible.

@dublin49

Definitely unethical, and illegal remains to be seen. The reality of the transaction is "don't pay €75k to RTE, pay it to this private bank account instead". I would be surprised if it's within their power to divert payments for services rendered to private bank accounts through schemes like this.

They're avoiding being called employees - obviously for tax and other purposes... Contractors rather than employees. Is that what you call a red flag?

Yes, and he's hoist with his own petard of being "kind" and "empathetic" with ordinary mortals' experience of taking a pay cut, etc. Karma

Crowe must be desperate.

Why does this bother you so much?

I bought my first house by myself and at one point, money was verrrry tight. €160 might sound like chicken feed to you but it might as well have been €1,600 in my world. If I'd known I could break up the cost into these manageable amounts, I'd have jumped at the chance. Thankfully it's not a problem for me any more but I'll never ever forget the feeling of having to count every cent. So don't assume everybody can pull €160 out of their pocket like a rabbit out of a hat.

it doesn't make any difference whether you pay your TV licence monthly, weekly or never. Once a TV licence has been paid by anybody living at your address, your home is on the system. It doesn't have to be by you. If you buy a 2nd hand house and the previous occupants bought a TV licence, they'll notice when it's not paid.

There is enough in the Sunday papers today to confirm this scandal is pointing towards more than just Tubridy. Claire Byrne early favourite to become the 2nd domino to fall should be a fun week ahead!

Full menu below of runners and riders of potential RTÉ/Noel Kelly candidates getting tangled up in this latest Irish instalment of the golden circle

RTE is an equal opportunity employer - unlessssssssssssssssssssssss

• You are a relative of a TD / Senator
• A relative of a high up
• Nathan Carters brother
• Popular on Social Media
• Etc

Where do you live? County?

When I got the letter to say they'd been around, I was going to FoI the dates that inspectors call to the house.

I am not a TV licence inspector don't worry just give me your full address and 160 euros :)

I've said it before around here, the contractors were always going to be RTE's Achilles heel and had the potential to bring down the house of cards - it's fantastic watching it happening right in front of us and the squirmfest that ensues

It's incredibly serious in many ways and not just careers falling. Some of the players (depending on how deep and how far back the investigation goes) are in deep deep sh!t.

Myself and lots of others around here, have been relentlessly questioning the relationship between RTE and Noel Kelly to the extent that there were letters written to sitting TD's asking that this be looked into - to no avail, with emails ignored. We had to assume that the TD's were afraid of poking the bear.

Finally, the grubby little arrangement is about to be uncovered with the excessive greed being the cause - the greedy bastards weren't just happy with massive fees/commission's for FA work, but explored and found other ways to get more and more

Ryan, Noel and Dee are f***ed (imo, along with others) and I'm delighted about that

Patrick O'Donovan FG TD, was on the radio earlier and this is the encounter he ref'd - Moya D may not be sleeping too well either

It turns out that Ray was so rubbish he's had a sponsor for about 2.5 of the 8/9 years he's there and they still won't get rid

It should be noted that while Ray's agent is not made public, it is Noel Kelly

For those that may not be up to speed following the various radio threads etc, NK has many more people on his books that don't publicly align with him but keep turning up on RTE or other places where NKM presenters do their thing - Eoin Corry (travel) Luke O'Neill (everything) Joanna Donnelly (weather) and there're many, many more