RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

Apart from showing a staggering lack of self-awareness, that can probably be put down to "Gimme it, it's mine."

more from the currency...

...I'm walking away

Speaking to Today with Claire Byrne, RTE released the following statement in relation to pausing negotiations with Ryan Tubridy regarding his radio responsibilities.

They stated: "Ryan Tubridy stood down from The Late Late Show in May. RTE has written to his agent that the contract including all arrangements therein has come to an end.

"Negotiations have commenced regarding his radio responsibilities and those negotiations have been paused as with all negotiations as per the board statement.’”

RTE were also questioned about future payments being made to Tubridy as there were two years left in his contract, where he would receive additional €75,000 sums.

Claire said: “We asked RTE this morning if there are exit payments of any type included in any of the management contracts for members of the executive board or for any other category of staff member at RTE. 

“They told us the answer on that question is no.”

I wonder if there's anyone in Renault who is related to or in the social circles of RT and NK...

This grilling Tubridy is getting is akin to the grilling Jimmy Carr got when his tax “avoision” came to light. The difference though is that Carr trusted the accountant. His money was being stashed legally but aggressively so to minimize taxation. Carr presumed once it was legal then it was grand. Once it came out he was grilled but had plausible excuses which salvaged his career. In short, he was making a lot of money, his accountant went to work on it, he thought no more of it but the optics looked awful and so he made arrangements to end involvement in such schemes. With Tubridy he has no plausible excuse since he was acutely aware that there were financial shenanigans afoot for years which benefited him financially in keeping his salary level what it was but also in terms of the PR optics of taking a pay cut, being in it together, affected by seeing poverty etc. That he kept schtum while basking in the latter is what sinks his reputation.

Carr has also since been very open about it and let himself be the brunt of many jokes. Going by Tubs' two statements I can't see him being that candid in the future.

Ryan Tubridy has gone public many times over many years saying that he was taking paycuts.......all the while pontificating and preaching about "wearing the green jersey", "being kind", "team Ireland" "showing solidarity"....

During this time , tubridy was in fact taking secret, shady backhanders to ensure he wasnt actually taking any paycut at all and in fact got a raise between 2017 and 2021.....bear in mind that in this period, the ordinary RTE staff were forced to take cuts....

Finally, we are still no clearer about the extra €120k he was paid from 2017-2019.

All this money going to Tubridy is from the Irish public......

Now, if you have read all that and you still think that Tubridy has done "fùck all wrong"....then you are truly lost....

Yes, the Jimmy Carr case crossed my mind over the last week. The great thing for Jimmy is though, his millions and lavish lifestyle are as a result of his own talent and shrewdness. No tax payer funded free loading there. Since it all came out, he's been fully open about it and basically said in interviews "Look, my accountant asked me if I wanted to reduce my tax bill in a legal way and, like everyone else in the whole world would, I said yes. Yes, I do!"

But obviously when the manner of cutting his tax bill came to light, he realised it was very bad optics and ended it. As you say, it's apples and oranges to the Tubridy case. He knew from 2020 he had a commercial deal on the side he couldn't fulfill due to covid and accepted tax payer cash in lieu of it to top up his already exorbitant salary. All the while 99% of the rest of the staff at the station were being asked to shoulder huge cuts.

And of course, Jimmy Carr never pretended he was the second coming of Christ, sent down from heaven to guide the little people of the nation through plague!

And as the viewing listening public it is in our interests to express our outrage and disgust at being taken for a ride and say we don't want to see or hear from this guy again. He is toxic. He has lost the room and the viewing audience and the advertisers.

Think of how much that will cost Tubridy and NK.

So in the long run, the agent didn't do the best job. Tubridy didn't do the best job. They didn't consider what would happen if these shenanigans came to light.

NK sent falsely described invoices to get these payments. They knew the RTE Boards wouldn't have signed off on these payments had they been aware. So NK colluded in these shenanigans.

Also, he has been found out as lying to his colleagues about his pay cut. That's not a good look. And also has consequences for future career prospects.

So, yes he did something wrong, even purely approached from a self interest perspective.

Well for one thing all talk of licence fee reform \ increase \ more funding is toxic. They won't be getting any more funding from the public for a long time.

Still confusing.

If barter transactions are an exchange of goods / services between two or more players facilitated through a barter exchange company (presumably that's what Astus UK is), how did actual monies change hands?

Also, if RTE issued credits for advertising to offset RT's extra fees, does that mean RTE understated their revenue for all the years this set-up was used? How much other barter credits were there and how long has this been happening? Bearing in mind that the finance department had no oversight of it until recently.

Any accountants on here know how barter transactions should be recorded and reported in financial statements?

What’s not true? Nothing can be done if no laws were broken?

so enlighten me. What could be done penalty wise IF it’s shown that no laws were broken?