RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

Hate you again.

And not pologetic about it either. Jaysus! I'm really trying.

Not asking you to accept it. Just giving my opinion, as you have yours.

Indeed and thankfully you've found your way onto a site that literally allows lots of "arseholes".

There are lots of organisations that have been privatised that have as little accountability as we've seen with RTE in recent time - you should be well aware of them.

Lots of big organisations across the water that were privitised in the 80's and 90's are now heading back to state ownership - a glaring example of what to be wary of.

How is the old privatisation going for the good average citizens of the UK in the extended wake of Margaret Thatchers actions now d'you think ....

Agreed, Ffs there are lots of private entities right here that are anything but a shining beacon of integrity...

Like anything there's a balance to be struck...this public-private nonsense gets tedious after a while...some person dug up their notes from college 20 years ago, proceeds to regurgitate them on a chat forum and now insists privatisation is the answer to life the universe and everything as if its never been tried before or there aren't examples of it being a horrible failure either...yawn!

It could be argued we haven't lived through the worst of the consequences of what that poster is advocating yet but its coming.

Here's a few private entities in the UK:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2012-09-27/why-britain-s-railway-privatization-failed (From 2012)

and of course our own private entities that eventually required state ownership of one description or another because they couldnt function and were literally to big to "fail":

https://www.permanenttsb.ie/heritage/heritage.html

Do you wish for me to continue or are you going to come up with reasons why it can be different?

I appreciate these are not broadcasting organisations however we do require a state supported and owned broadcaster - just a leaner one, with way more oversight!

Yes, a lot of stuff that we might consider public service content will be produced by private companies and a lot of stuff produced by RTE itself will be trashy commercial tat.

That's why I think the TV and radio stations themselves should be competing private entities.

The public service aspect (which I agree is needed) should be a publicly funded commissioning body serving all the TV stations but which sells but does not itself broadcast content.

I think you'll find that the water supply/sewage removal, Energy supply, Public transport and indeed banking industries all HAVE to survive to the point that the state often HAVE to get involved once those bastions of business, the private sector, screw things up to some extent, but not after extracting a shed tonne of profits/dividends etc.

I am not private = bad/ public = good - I have been around long enough to know that certain organisations/services are generally better off in private hands once regulation exists etc but there are other industries that shouldn't have any private interference (generally).

Surely you've lived through the banking crisis?

Public service broadcasting is needed - but again, there's plenty scope (as there is now) for private sector companies and indeed contractors make a good living out of it also.

This thread has now jumped the shark

KB won't succeed as long as RT is with RTE and as long as NKM has clients inRTE.

RT won't have a career in the UK or Ireland.

As RT won't have a career here or in the UK what station he goes to is redundant question.

After the aww cat gif, you showed me up with a better p word

Not on. We'll have words later dancer.

Don't!

You're very confused and muddled on a lot on things. Don't know the facts. Here's a clear break down:

There are differing recollections of RTÉ’s underwriting of its tripartite agreement with Ryan Tubridy and car company Renault.

The former Late Late Show presenter was paid €150,000 by RTÉ under the agreement in lieu of two €75,000 payments per year from Renault.

Noel Kelly provided the PAC with an email from former RTÉ chief financial officer Breda O’Keefe dated February 20, 2020, saying the broadcaster “can provide you with a side letter to underwrite this fee for the duration of the contract”.

This goes directly against O’Keefe’s recollection of events. She said the management team were against the underwriting.

The former CFO said she was unaware of any underwriting of the agreement by RTÉ until it was reported in the media.

RTÉ interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch told the PAC on Thursday that the broadcaster maintains the February 2020 email did not represent a contractual agreement to underwrite the fees.

Former director general Dee Forbes verbally committed to underwrite the agreement in May 2020, he said.

One of the seven “untruths” Ryan Tubridy took aim at in his opening statement on Tuesday was “that RTÉ’s underwriting of Renault’s payment obligations was a secret.”

“This is not true. RTÉ’s underwriting of Renault’s payment obligations was not a secret,” he said

The February 2020 email from Breda O’Keefe to Noel Kelly was copied to Dee Forbes and RTÉ’s director of content Jim Jennings.

The interim deputy director general has said it wasn’t widely known within RTÉ that the Renault deal was being underwritten.

Noel Kelly told PAC the deal with Renault was a commercial one for his client to fulfil live appearances for Renault, separate from his contract with RTÉ.

Mr Lynch contradicted the claim, saying negotiations for Mr Tubridy’s salary and those for the tripartite agreement were closely linked.

New RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst said there’s “no logic” to claims made by Tubridy and Kelly that the two agreements are separate.

“My idea of it would be that if the money was negotiated through RTÉ and paid for by RTÉ then it should be counted as an overall payment by RTÉ and therefore should have been properly accounted for and represented in the figure,” he said.

Noel Kelly contends that there was no chance of Ryan Tubridy walking away from RTÉ if the parties couldn’t agree to the terms of the annual €75,000 payments.

Conversely, Mr Lynch said the belief within RTÉ was Ryan Tubridy’s contract would not have been signed without the commercial agreement with Renault in place or RTÉ underwriting it.

Noel Kelly told PAC: “We never expected RTÉ to actually pay the sum. If there was no sponsor, there would be no payment.” Renault didn’t engage Tubridy for the roadshows in the final two years of the three-year deal.

However, Mr Kelly filed invoices for the payments to RTÉ, who then forwarded them on to UK-based media company Astus.

Mr Lynch said Noel Kelly acknowledged in the Grant Thornton report that RTÉ would make the two €75,000 payments to Tubridy if the sponsor was no longer in place before the contract was up.

“We contend that the payments of €75,000 for year two and three of the commercial contract were pursued by NK Management, despite it knowing that the Renault contract was no longer in place.”

Kelly rejected claims that he had influence at the top level of RTÉ and said he had never had a one-on-one meeting with Ms Forbes.

“I’ve only ever met Dee Forbes with her legal team. I’ve never had a cup of tea with Dee Forbes, I have never met her for lunch, I have never met her for dinner, I don’t know Dee Forbes,” he said.

Mr Lynch provided PAC with records of a Microsoft Teams call on April 25, 2022, which was only attended by Mr Kelly and Ms Forbes.