Oliver Callan has said that filling in as host of Ryan Tubridy''s RTE radio show this morning is the "last place" he expected to be - and that people enjoy a "good old RTE scandal".
Ryan usually presents The Ryan Tubridy Show on RTE Radio 1 between 9 and 10am. However, following the recent controversy that he was paid hundreds of thousands of euro in undeclared pay, he will not be on the show.
Greeting listeners on the Ryan Tubridy show this morning, Callan said that it was a "weird Friday". He said: "This is the last place I expected to be 24 hours ago, but here we are. The reasons are fairly obvious, especially as I get to the review of the papers, because the usual presenter of the show is the subject of every single front page.
"The wider media it has so be said do enjoy a good old RTE scandal - and boy did RTE whip up and serve a cool one with a flake on top and sprinkles of shambles."
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The Monaghan comedian also said that the "ordinary, decent staff" on the programme were working away early this morning and he urged listeners to be considerate to them. He said: "We're all here to serve and bear in mind they are on the receiving end of all those messages here and across the programmes today.
"It's an RTE story so we could be accused of talking too much about ourselves, but if I ignored it this morning on this programme I'd be doing a disservice for you," added Callan.
It comes after it emerged on Thursday that Ryan Tubridy was paid €345,000 more in payments than what was declared publicly between 2017 and 2022.
Later today members of the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) working at RTE will hold an emergency meeting today to discuss revelations that that the national broadcaster paid Tubridy €345,000 in undeclared pay.
Sinn Fein TD and Chair of the Dail Public Accounts Committee Brian Stanley said he was demanding "immediate explanations and accountability" from RTE over the payments. He also expressed his disappointed that senior people from RTE included Director have been before the committee several times over the past three years and that they gave commitments that pay across the top ten presenters was being reduced.
"Not alone did that not happen in this case, in actual fact there were €75,000s being added on, there were €50,000s being added on.
"This is at a time when RTÉ was coming into us, RTÉ senior management pleading that the finances of the organisation were in such bad shape. And that is the context here," he said.
Minister for Media Catherine Martin described the situation as "unacceptable" and confirmed that she will be meeting the chair of the RTE board on Monday.
In a statement released yesterday afternoon, RTE said that in late March of this year, during a routine audit of RTE’s 2022 accounts, an issue was identified in relation to the transparency of certain payments made to former Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy.
"On receipt of this information, the Audit and Risk Committee of the RTE Board promptly commissioned Grant Thornton to carry out an independent fact-finding review on the matter in question," the statement said.
Ryan released a statement yesterday evening saying that he was "surprised" by the news. He said: "Like many people, I'm surprised by the announcements made in RTE's statement today regarding the errors in the reporting of its accounts."
"It is unfortunate that these errors are in relation to how RTE have reported payments made to me but I just want to be clear: this is a matter for RTE and I have no involvement in RTE's internal accounting treatment or RTE's public declarations in connection with such payments."
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