Noel Kelly: ‘This is not the Ryan Tubridy scandal, this is the RTÉ scandal’. Opening statements have concluded at the PAC and now Tubridy and Kelly will face questions. Watch live:
: Tubridy and Kelly to come out fighting at Oireachtas meeting as reconciliation looks a long way offCliff Taylor writes:
The reason for not paying the €120,000 bonus was that Tubridy did not undertake additional duties - including a series of eight TV programmes - which had been put in as potential extras in the earlier contract, but never happened. The question now is on what basis they did this, as it had the effect of misleading the public about what the presenter earned from 2017 to 2019. Grant Thornton forensic accountants are looking at his decision and are due to report on it to the RTÉ board.‘This is not the Ryan Tubridy scandal - it is the RTÉ scandal’Ryan Tubridy’s agent Noel Kelly is now speaking. He sets out the details of Ryan Tubridy’s contract for the five years from 2015.
In response to Mr Kelly’s request of a side letter from RTÉ to guarantee the fee for the duration of the contract , the email from RTÉ states that: “A letter of guarantee from the Director General will be provided that there will be no further cuts to the new contract.” Elsewhere, Tubridy says he has nearly a foot-off-the-ground-high of cards that he has got from members of the public. He finishes by saying he would like to be back on air “doing the job I love”.
“But to be clear- I took a pay cut from RTÉ of 20 per cent in 2020 for each of the five years of my contract, at a cost of €525,000 to me over the length of that contract.” Ryan Tubridy quickly cycles through the third, fourth, fifth and sixth untruths. They all deal with claims that the payments were secretive or his contract with Renault were secretive or that people did not know of the nature of the contract.
Ryan Tubridy arrives at Leinster House, Dublin, where he is scheduled to give evidence before two committees. Photograph: Niall Carson/PA WirePoliticians on the Oireachtas public accounts committee are now meeting in a private session, before the public hearing begins around 11am. You will be able to follow the committee meeting on a livestream we will have at the top of this live story when it begins shortly.
“RTÉ does not accept this characterisation. RTÉ's position is that the email of 20 February 2020 formed part of the discussions and engagement between it and NK Management in relation to the proposed new TV and radio contract with Mr Tubridy/Tuttle Productions and did not comprise a binding legal or contractual commitment on its part.
“As has become abundantly obvious in the last three weeks, this highlights the existence of two RTÉs. Mr Tubridy has also disputed the claim that he did not ask RTÉ about its under-declaration of his income. He said his company earnings fully reflected what he earned in those and all subsequent years.
“The third untruth is that I was covertly or secretly overpaid by RTÉ. I was not overpaid by RTÉ at any point. I fully accept that I am very well paid but I was paid fully in accordance with my contract.”In another point Kelly disputes with RTÉ, he states that revised figures from the broadcaster last month at the outset of the controversy, where they restated how much they paid Tubridy, are incorrect.
In his opening statement, Tubridy also maintains the terms of RTÉ underwriting his side deal with Renault, which left the broadcaster paying him an extra €150,000, was “NOT a secret”. “There are RTÉ's under declarations which we challenged them on back in 2020 and are RTÉ’s over declarations of what they actually paid me in 2020 and 2021. This has caused justifiable anger among my colleagues. I understand their anger. The upshot of RTÉ’s inaccurate declarations is an impression that I have been less than honest. This is not the case.
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