RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

Not sure what great qualities that Noel Kelly has, apart from being a hard worker and desperately pushy. His work as an agent is only a sideline job. He also has a marketing company. The fact that he was able to get lucrative contracts for the likes of Gerry Ryan and Tubridy was of no benefit to anyone, except themselves. Tubs should have made sure that everything was above board and transparent. That he was still running around after Kelly, after he landed him in trouble, beggars belief.

Good. The license fee revenues will continue to crash. Until the likes of Forbes and O'Leary stop pretending to be ill and face the music. Until Tubs pays back the 150k. Until O'Keefe explains the massive "redundancy" payment. Until Jennings and Coveney are held to account. Until the other vastly overpaid RTE presenters have new contracts (Duffy, Darcy). Until the influence of leeches like Kelly is reduced. Until RTE is a public service broadcaster and not a gravy train for the elites.

This is interesting (or maybe it isn’t I dunno🤪)

The BBC publishes salaries above £178,000, which means that Ryans salary of 170k euro for his radio programme wouldn’t feature on their published list.

So even if he got a small bit of part time work on the beeb he’d likely be making ok money - problem is he put too many of his eggs in with the RTÉ basket - had he spread his wings a bit more and a bit more regularly he could have slotted nicely into some morning or drive time slot on one of the beebs regional channels -

I know we joke about Radio Norwich but if full time, the pay is likely higher than what he’s getting right now- a small fish in a big pond still pays the mortgage

Yeah I agree but Bryan did spread his wings. He filled in for Graham Norton a few years ago. Despite having g the Saturday morning slot of one of the major BBC presenters with an established audience for a few weeks he didn’t turn it into anything further. He had a clause in his contract to allow him with the outside broadcasters for a few weeks a year but he didn’t seem to developer that either because of lack of demand or lack of ambition/complacency. Most of us can’t afford to rest in our laurels and do have to uphill from time to time to stay competitive at west we do. I’d say Ryan took his eye off the back a long time ago and accepted the BBCs “Don’t call us, we’ll call you” and just sat back into his RTE gig believing it was shears going to be there because, in fairness, who ever got thrown it off RTE? Even Ryan was back in this time till he opened his mouth. It’s probably a good lesson allround really. RTE probably need to get more discerning. If you’re not learning and growing and becoming better then good luck. Look at Joe Duffy. There was probably a time early in when Liveline was a good show with him in charge. Now we have a guy steering a shoe into any old horeshîte to wind the clock down to his retirement as he’s unlikely to get a contract next time out.

Good question. I know RTE I’d a cushy number but capable and ambitious people don’t stay in cushy numbers however for some who are talented it’s also a source of security I suppose. It’s not always desirable to live like a shark not knowing where your next meal is coming from.

I think there are many more outlets cut talent now. Back in the day Gay, Terry & Eamonn really just had RTE as a kick off point or you went to England out of the box. I actually think Gaybstarted in Granada before coming back here but I might be wrong. I’d imagine the opening back then weren’t very many and probably there was a lesser amount lining for them but the cresm did rise.

Graham bypassed RTE and looked to go straight to the UK. At least I don’t remember him doing anything in RTE. He’d probably have been too controversial for them to touch at that stage.

RTE ding develope talent. If you get a show it tell they don’t take off you should be gone but RTE seem to pick a new hire that cost them money and shoehorn them into as much as possible. You can’t get a silk purse out of a pigs ear no matter how much you wish it or try. Instead of looking for the next talent to developer they keep doubling down in the sage failed people.

Oddly tge BBC are being personality focused lately too. There seems to be no end of shed with Ramesh Ranganathsn and Rylsn doing the rounds but at least they are talented.

If RTE don’t push Prime properly they’ll just end up with s a stable of also rans. That’s been really evident since Stubbs quit the LLS. There really wasn’t anyone internally who could refinance him and it shine a C light in the back of talent and fresh blood in there. We’re a cosy Little Rock pool. Most of what’s winning around would die quickly in the ocean that is the UK market. I’d say there is far too much competition across the Irish Sea really. It’s great for their market but it means we get stuck with the ones who can’t compete or a care home for the ones who tried and were found out.

This was probably posted already:

I'm sure everyone here will be on the edge of their seat waiting to hear what's next for The Toyman. 😂

Good to see that he appears to be in reasonable form anyway - like I said before, not interested in kicking the man when he’s down- if he gets another decent gig somewhere else then good on him

Agreed. I don’t like his work but it’s hard losing your job so personally I wish him the best and hope he has a soft landing and is back doing what he loves before long.

Has he? If so, good luck to him.

Just don't ever think of coming back here.

In the short term at least, RTÉ isn't the sort of place anyone should aspire to work in- there’s a lot of dead wood to be kicked out, a lot of old practices to be stopped and new processes to be introduced- if Tubridy can spread his wings a bit more which he has needed to anyway over the last number of years, he might look back at this episode as a blessing in disguise.

He seems to be going about things the right way anyway- my gripe as with most people is with RTÉ in general- this has been a side show that got way too much emphasis considering the much bigger issues with RTÉ and the waste of tax payers funds.

100% agree, but the statement from the union in the Irish Times and to the Government / political parties is

And the "lets stop talking about Tubrity" appeals to many people, but it fails to really address anything else in the organization.

Yes it is a side show, but there is much more to be looked into at RTÉ.

Great post. We can live in hope. I must admit if that were to happen, or anything close to it, I would start to believe in rte, and may even start to trust that they are doing something to show us that things are changing. But that would be the minimum I would be willing to accept. Normalising Duffy's, D'Arcy's and Byrne's pay among the others would not be enough for me.

He has done a few stints on the bbc before https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/brand/b0131yms and same https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0131yms/episodes/player

There are some interesting comments in this link that was posted by somebody else earlier in this thread from 2015 https://forums.digitalspy.com/discussion/2089720/no-more-ryan-tubridy-on-bbc-radio-2

I am convinced that Bakhurst must know a few 'tricks' more than than the chocolate man when it comes to doing business. Maybe even some very old school type methods that would have been used and well-honed to almost perfection. If he Kelly starts trying to make things more difficult, as I am aware already that he is gearing up to sue, I am sure he will use everything in the book that he knows.

I am curious though, and I am sure that somebody here will know. If, for example Ray D'Arcy is given the 9 o'clock slot, does he have to renegotiate his contract? Or could he just continue with the contact that he currently has?

Sue for what? I know he might have recourse for being blacklisted as an agent but while I’m all for standing up for yourself, there’s a time also to know when to walk away. He’s just digging a bigger hole for himself and his clients if he goes the legal route. Mind you he seems like a kind of aggressive guy and that probably has stood him in good stead to date so he won’t see the downside now I’d imagine.

“Breathed new life into the Late Late Show”

Do we live in parallel universes?? Tubridy is an awful interviewer, especially considering he was mainly interviewing clowns from the RTE canteen.

Tubridy’s contract at least was based around “hours worked”- so unless there’s an increase in hours I don’t think a contract renegotiation would necessarily be required as long as there’s agreement around the nature of the type of show they’d do in the first place linked to their skills or knowledge