RTE executive says only former DG would have known salary figures incorrect

The former director general of RTE was the only executive at the Irish national broadcaster who had all the information to know it had published incorrect salary figures for star presenter Ryan Tubridy, the organisation has said.

Dee Forbes was “directly involved” in aspects of underwriting an agreement with a commercial partner for payments to former Late Late Show host Tubridy, RTE’s interim deputy director-general Adrian Lynch said in a statement.

“No member of the RTE Executive Board, other than the director general [Ms Forbes], had all the necessary information in order to understand that the publicly declared figures for Ryan Tubridy could have been wrong,” he said.

The statement comes after RTE staff staged protests at the broadcaster’s offices around the country as questions intensified around the 345,000 euro worth of undeclared payments made between 2017 and 2022 to Tubridy, which emerged last week.

Tuesday’s statement covers fees paid to Mr Tubridy between 2020-2022 and said a report found no illegality in the payments.

A further external review into payments dating back to 2017 is under way and members of RTE’s executive have been summoned to appear before crunch parliamentary committee hearings on Wednesday and Thursday.

Ms Forbes, who resigned as director general of RTE on Monday, was not consulted in the drafting of the statement and Mr Lynch warned she may dispute some elements of it.

Mr Lynch said the contractual arrangements for Mr Tubridy between 2020-2025 were negotiated by Ms Forbes and the then chief financial officer supported by the RTE solicitor.

The Grant Thornton report says that an exit fee for Mr Tubridy under his previous contract was foregone and a commercial arrangement was agreed.

The statement from RTE outlines terms of this tripartite agreement between RTE, Mr Tubridy and a commercial partner. This agreement was separate to Mr Tubridy’s central contract with RTE.

The agreement involved Mr Tubridy’s appearance at commercial events.

It explains that Mr Tubridy was to be paid 75,000 euro annually under this tripartite commercial arrangement, with the payments underwritten by RTE.

The payment was made by the commercial partner in the first year. The same sum paid to Mr Tubridy was then provided back to the commercial partner by RTE by way of a credit note on future spending with the broadcaster – meaning the deal was cost-neutral to the business.

Mr Lynch said Mr Tubridy was not aware of the credit note provided by RTE to the commercial partner.

However, this arrangement ended during the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving RTE liable for the next two years of payments.

Mr Lynch said Ms Forbes had verbally agreed to the terms of the commercial arrangement in a video meeting.

He said other than Ms Forbes and the commercial director, no member of the executive board had knowledge of two invoices from Mr Tubridy’s agent dated May 9 2022 and July 6 2022 relating to the two amounts owed under the ceased commercial arrangement.

He said the commercial director has stated that her knowledge of those matters was limited to the instructions received by her from Ms Forbes in connection with the payments in question.

Those instructions were received at a point in time when the arrangements, on foot of which the May 9 2022 and July 6 2022 invoices ultimately came to be raised, had already been negotiated and agreed, and to which the commercial director was not party.

The Grant Thornton report concludes with the finding RTE could have made the two payments of 75,000 Euro by alternative means such as payment from the broadcaster to Mr Tubridy’s agent or company.

It also said that, on the balance of probabilities, the barter account was used because there were available funds in it and that it appeared there was no budget available for the 75,000 euro payments in year two or three of the agreement.

On the barter account each payment was recorded at a value of 115,380 euro (gross) and 75,000 euro (net).

In addition, RTE paid, via the UK barter account, for the costs of hosting the commercial sponsor events in 2022.

The actual cost of the events was 30,586 euro.

These payments were recorded in the barter account at a value of 47,477 euro.

Mr Lynch said: “On the basis of the Grant Thornton findings, there was no illegality and payments were made pursuant to an agreed contract. ”

He said the Grant Thornton review makes no finding of wrongdoing on the part of Mr Tubridy in relation to any payments made by RTE.

“Ryan Tubridy was not aware of the credit note provided by RTE to the commercial partner.”

He said the review also found no findings of wrongdoing on the part of the commercial partner.

The Government has also ordered an external review into governance and culture at the broadcaster, and RTE executives are due before two parliamentary committees this week to answer questions from TDs and senators.

A spokesperson for Ms Forbes confirmed she would not be attending a hearing the Oireachtas Media Committee due to health reasons.

Mr Tubridy is not presenting his weekday morning radio show this week.

Media minister Catherine Martin said she had briefed government colleagues about the external review she ordered.

She said: “The revelations from RTE this past week are unacceptable and damaging to both RTE and to public service broadcasting in general.”

She said she had written to the RTE chairperson Siun Ni Raghallaigh to set out key questions that must be answered.

“At times of crisis, it is the failure to put all information on the record at the earliest possible juncture that does most damage.”

The minister said she expects to finalise the terms of reference of the external review of governance and culture within RTE in the coming days.

The Grant Thornton review into the 2020-2022 payments was commissioned by the Audit and Risk Committee of the RTE Board after anomalies were noticed.

The statement came after more than 100 members of staff protested at RTE headquarters in Donnybrook in response to growing anger over the spiralling controversy at the public service broadcaster.

Later this week, members of the RTE board and executive are due to attend the Media committee and the Public Accounts committee to answer questions.

People Before Profit TD Richard Boyd Barrett said there is more transparency needed in relation to the controversy.

“It is absolutely vital in this scandal of governance over secret payments to one broadcaster, and whoever was involved in RTE, that public service broadcasting and the ordinary journalists and staff in RTE don’t become the victims of the wrongs that were done by a small minority at the top,” Mr Boyd Barrett said.

Labour Party Irish senator Marie Sherlock has said there are unanswered questions over decisions taken by the executive board of RTE.

She said: “The reality across the country is that the car is on fire and RTE staff are having to keep the show on the road working in extraordinarily difficult circumstances in an environment where many are saying to us privately they feel massively disrespected.

“I think there is a very real danger now because of the questions that remain outstanding, and of course we have to see the detailed statement from RTE, but it is in real danger now of inflicting a fatal crisis of confidence upon itself.”

She added: “How has RTE made gods out of a small number of its workers?”