RTÉ executive denies misleading politicians over Ryan Tubridy payments

Adrian Lynch says the row over Ryan Tubridy's pay is the "single biggest crisis in the history of RTÉ"

A senior executive at the Irish national broadcaster RTÉ has denied he misled politicians over undeclared payments to former The Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy.

Sinn Féin politician Imelda Munster claimed an Oireachtas (Irish parliament) committee had been "misled" over how much RTÉ executives knew about the deal.

"Your senior executives knew about it and you misled this committee," Ms Munster told RTÉ interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch.

"I did not mislead this committee, I did not mislead this committee," replied Mr Lynch.

An audit of RTÉ's finances previously found that Mr Tubridy was paid €345,000 (£296,800) more than was declared publicly between 2017 and 2022.

The former RTÉ director general Dee Forbes resigned over the deal.

It was subsequently claimed that no member of RTÉ's executive board could have known figures published for Mr Tubridy's pay were wrong other than Ms Forbes.

Mr Tubridy told the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on Tuesday that RTÉ had "engaged in deceptive practices to pay me, practices that were hidden from me".

Ryan Tubridy (right) and his agent Noel Kelly gave evidence to the committee on Tuesday

A number of RTÉ board members and executives appeared before the PAC on Thursday, including Mr Lynch and the new director general Kevin Bakhurst, who took up his post on Monday.

"The matters relating to the contractual arrangements for Mr Tubridy, the public mis-statements of his remuneration and other subsequent discoveries have created one of the most shameful and damaging episodes in the organisation's history," said Mr Bakhurst.

But he also said that there were still "gaps in evidence and missing personal testimonies that could irrefutably evidence all aspects of the chain of events".

Mr Lynch said that "the mis-statement of fees paid to Ryan Tubridy by RTÉ has precipitated the single biggest crisis in the history of RTÉ".

"At the outset I'd like to state that RTÉ takes full responsibility for these misstatements and the events that led to them," he added.

But he also claimed that until Ms Forbes gave a verbal commitment to Mr Tubridy's agent Noel Kelly in May 2020 RTÉ had not agreed to underwrite additional payments to Mr Tubridy.

"The request was known within RTÉ, however the commitment to do so was not widely known," he said.

'Not an ounce of credibility'

A number of politicians on the committee challenged Mr Lynch on his account of how many people in RTÉ knew about the deal.

"You knew that the agreement was underwritten by RTÉ," Sinn Féin's Ms Munster told Mr Lynch.

"You told us that you spoke to your senior executives, you asked them to give you a guarantee that they didn't know about it.

"You accepted that so you knew about it, your senior executives knew about it and you misled this committee."

Mr Lynch replied: "I asked each of the senior executives did they know that this deal was underwritten by a verbal agreement between Noel Kelly and Dee Forbes."

"You knew and you misled this committee," said Ms Munster.

"I did not mislead this committee, I did not mislead this committee," Mr Lynch said.

However other politicians were also sceptical that Ms Forbes alone had agreed the arrangement for the payments to Mr Tubridy with his agent.

Fianna Fáil's Cormac Devlin said: "There's was an impression clearly given that almost it was all Dee Forbes.

"That's the impression that was given here."

Independent politician Verona Murphy said: "I think it should be on the record that there isn't an ounce of credibility to back up what either of these witnesses are saying."

Kevin Bakhurst began his role as RTÉ's director general on Monday

Mr Bakhurst said it would be "helpful" if Ms Forbes agreed to appear before the committee.

"It clearly would be very useful if the former director general, when she's well enough, can come and give evidence to shed some light on particularly some of the verbal conversations we have no records of," he said.

Mr Bakhurst later told the committee that RTÉ had received an invoice from Mr Tubridy's agent.

Mr Tubridy has been off air for several weeks and is not presenting his show on RTÉ Radio One.

Asked if any salary was being paid to Mr Tubridy, Mr Bakhurst said: "As of this week, no because we need to agree what the level of that is."

Labour Party politician Alan Kelly asked what the public would think about the events.

"I feel like with these committee members we're nearly living together we've been at this for so long and it's actually now more confusing than it ever was," he said.

"The evidence has been contradictory.

"I can't see how some of the people who've been appearing at the two committees can work together again."