RTÉ's Interim Deputy Director General Adrian Lynch has issued a statement addressing the circumstances around the misstating of payments to presenter Ryan Tubridy between 2020 and 2022.
Last week the RTÉ Board said that between 2017 and 2022, the presenter received a series of payments totalling €345,000 above his annual published salary.
This evening Mr Lynch outlined the situation related to pay from 2020 to 2022 in a detailed nine-page statement based on a review completed by Grant Thornton that comes six days into the payments controversy.
Dee Forbes, who resigned as Director General of RTÉ yesterday, was not consulted in the drafting of the statement and Mr Lynch warned she may dispute some elements of it.
Here are the key points from Mr Lynch's statement:
- "No member of the RTÉ Executive Board, other than the Director General, had all the necessary information in order to understand that the publicly declared figures for Ryan Tubridy could have been wrong," according to Mr Lynch's statement.
- External legal advice found there was "no illegality" and "payments were made pursuant to an agreed contract".
- There was "no finding of wrongdoing" against Mr Tubridy or the commercial partner involved in what happened. The review said that Mr Tubridy "was not aware of the credit note provided by RTÉ to the commercial partner" involved. It said the broadcaster issued the credit note in July 2020 "which should have been publicly disclosed as part of Ryan Tubridy's earning for that year".
- Contractual arrangements for Mr Tubridy between 2020-2025 were negotiated by Ms Forbes and the then chief financial officer, supported by the RTÉ solicitor.
- The statement outlines the terms of a tripartite agreement between RTÉ, Mr Tubridy and a commercial partner. This agreement was separate to Mr Tubridy's central contract with RTÉ.
- The agreement involved Tubridy's appearance at commercial events. The statement explains that Mr Tubridy was to be paid €75,000 per year under this tripartite commercial arrangement, with the payments underwritten by RTÉ.
- In the first year the payment was made by the commercial partner. The same sum was then provided back to the commercial partner by RTÉ by way of a credit note on future spending with the broadcaster - meaning the deal was cost-neutral to the business.
- This arrangement ended during the Covid-19 pandemic, leaving RTÉ liable for the next two years of payments.
- Other than Ms Forbes and Commercial Director Geraldine O'Leary, no member of the Executive Board had knowledge of two invoices from Mr Tubridy's agent dated 9 May 2022 and 6 July 2022 relating to the two amounts owed under the ceased commercial arrangement.
- Ms O'Leary said "her knowledge" of the presenter's payments agreement was "limited to the instructions received by her" from Ms Forbes, according to the statement.
- RTÉ 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. These payments were recorded in the barter account at a value of €47,477.
- RTÉ's Director of Content Jim Jennings signed off on the payments deal, but was "not aware" the broadcaster was "underwriting" any payments that are now under scrutiny.
- RTÉ's Director of Legal Paula Mullooly and Director of Human Resources Eimear Cusack "were not involved in the negotiation of any aspects of these arrangements" and were "simply aware that negotiations were taking place".
- Mr Lynch's statement said the "Director of Human Resources had no sight of any correspondence relating to the matter".
