Ireland AM presenter Martin King has come to the defence of Ryan Tubridy after it emerged the former Late Late Show host had earned €345,000 more than declared.
TV presenter King also revealed how deals are made as his wife Jenny McCarthy called for Tubridy to return to the airwaves.
He also opened up about his relationship with Noel Kelly, who is his agent also, as well as how it feels working for Virgin Media when RTÉ's top earners get announced.
Martin told RSVP Magazine: "Out of all the people involved, Ryan Tubridy is the least culpable. He was taking a cut in salary and his agent said could they make some sort of an arrangement, and an arrangement was made.
"It was probably a case of if he brought in a certain audience there would be bonuses.
"If you reach a figure you’ll make more money and that’s probably what that was. No matter what our job is, we’re selling something, but this money wasn’t declared by RTÉ.
"I sincerely hope the pressure doesn’t grow on him and he has to leave his show."
His wife Jenny added: "I don’t want to see him losing his job either, he’s amazing at his job. I’ve been interviewed by him before on 2FM and we know him through the industry."
When it comes to RTÉ’s top 10 earners being publicly revealed every two years, Martin said: "It’s sweet if you can get it. If you can arrange a contract with an employer that will pay you that money then fair play to you.
"I work for a private enterprise, Virgin Media Television is a private business.
"There’s always a bottom line. The money is not going to be as good where I am as it is in RTÉ, but RTÉ is publicly funded."
RTÉ manages to get a double stream of income, from the licence fee and from advertising, something which makes it more difficult for Virgin.
Martin said: "I do think it’s unfair but we’re not the only country with that model, there are many other countries where the State broadcaster also carries advertising."
Noel Kelly is Martin’s agent along with Ryan Tubridy. He also has other people on his books, including Claire Byrne and Joe Duffy, who confirmed that they were never paid by barter account.
He said: "I don’t work in RTÉ, so there was no need for a barter account for me. I understand that the people represented by NK Management felt they needed to do that and they did."
New Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty was also called on to reveal his salary before he started the role which he did last week. He will earn €250,000 for 30 episodes of the iconic chat show.
However, Martin does think Patrick will do a great job when he takes to the show in September.
He said: "It was always a case of the best available person for the job getting it.
"When I heard it was him it didn’t surprise me because when Gay Byrne stepped away Patrick’s name was in the mix and that was in 1999. Here he is now stepping into RTÉ’s biggest show."
The couple has a busy summer ahead with both the GAA season in full swing and holidays.
Jenny said: "We’re heading away for 10 days. We normally go away for two weeks in August, but a wedding that I wanted to do came up so I changed the holiday.
"I marked a couple of weeks off in July and Martin’s mouth dropped when I told him. He said, 'What about the GAA?'"
Martin added: "Jenny wanted to go on a Friday and I said there was a potential All-Ireland quarter-final that weekend and I couldn’t be away."
