Ireland’s biggest TV star Ryan Tubridy says he has been “cancelled” over a secret payment scandal at the public broadcaster RTE.
The 50-year-old presenter said that his name had been “sullied” by claims RTE had understated his earnings in public documents by €345,000 (£295,000) between 2017 and 2022.
His agent also claimed that the star had “undeservedly” been made the “poster boy” for the scandal.
The claims sparked a backlash against the presenter – already RTE’s highest-paid star with a salary of €440,000 (£375,500) in 2021 – because they came at a time at which the cash-strapped broadcaster was making cuts elsewhere.
They also sparked a spending review at the broadcaster, which revealed so-called “barter” accounts used by top executives for lavish expenses, including tickets to watch the Ireland rugby team and to a Champions League final.
At a parliamentary committee in Dublin on Tuesday, Mr Tubridy, who until May had a morning radio slot and presented the world’s longest-running TV chat show, The Late Late Show, addressed the backlash.
“This is my first rodeo being in the public eye [like this],” he told the Public Accounts Committee.
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“I’ve never seen anything like it. I don’t know if any of you’ve been cancelled before but let me tell you, you don’t want to be there.
“My name has been desperately sullied, I think my reputation has been sullied.
“I’m deeply upset. I’m hurt. It’s hard to leave the house if you really want me to be honest about it.”
His agent, Noel Kelly, also addressed the committee, and said Mr Tubridy had been the victim of “horrendous reporting”.
“We weren’t invited [to the committee], we asked [to come],” he said.
“And we saw over the last three weeks, I’ve never seen such horrendous, horrendous reporting.
“And why? Suddenly the most trusted man in Ireland, Ryan Tubridy, it was like ‘throw him under a bus’. Why?”
He added: “Ryan and I have attracted a horrendous amount of criticism and abuse in the past few weeks because he is such a high-profile and successful figure in Ireland, and he has been made the poster boy for this scandal. That is undeserved.”
‘Maximum transparency’
Mr Kelly also addressed the overpayment claims and told the committee that he was acting under instruction from RTE, “at all times”.
Ahead of the committee, the former chat show host released a statement to say he aimed to bring “maximum transparency” to both hearings and address “misinformation” that he said has been circulating.
He addressed what he called “seven material untruths” about the controversy at the committee, and claimed that RTE’s figures and statements had created a “fog of confusion”.
This included him denying assertions he had not taken a pay cut, and had taken a 20% pay cut between 2020-2025, and that he had been secretly overpaid – insisting instead that RTE had under-declared his fee amounts.
Part of the payment row involves a tripartite deal between Mr Tubridy, RTE and the then-sponsor of The Late Late Show, Renault Ireland.
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RTE – for reasons yet to be determined – agreed to underwrite the deal, so when the carmaker decided not to renew the arrangement after one year, the station paid Tubridy the remaining €150,000 (£128,000).
It was routed through a London-based RTE barter account.
‘Incorrect version of events’
Meanwhile, Mr Tubridy told the committee on Tuesday that although he was entitled to a €120,000 (£102,000) loyalty or exit payment during that period, he had effectively “foregone” it.
“I actually waived my entitlement to this payment and I didn’t receive one cent of it. I hid nothing. I had nothing to hide,” he said.
His agent, Mr Kelly, told the committee that RTE has attempted to “distance itself” from its decision to underwrite the tripartite deal, and that this was “a mess of RTE’s making”.
He referred to a letter from former RTE chief financial officer Breda O’Keeffe, dated February 2020, which said: “We can provide you with a side letter to underwrite this fee for the duration of the contract (with Renault).”
He said the decision to underwrite the contract “was known widely within the executive board of RTE”.
Mr Tubridy has not presented his weekday morning radio programme since the issues at RTE came to light on 22 June, though he told the committee he hoped to return.
In response, RTE rejected the claim that it gave an “incorrect version of events” over an agreement to underwrite payments to Mr Tubridy.
It said in a statement: “RTE’s position is as per previous statements: That, until the verbal commitment given by the former director-general during the call on 7 May, 2020, it had not agreed to underwrite the 75,000 euro payment per contract year.”