Patrick Kielty’s salary as Late Late host could be made public as early as tomorrow, as it emerged he is not opposed to the idea.
It comes after Fianna Fail TD Niamh Smyth questioned the RTE board yesterday on how soon they will be making the Northern Irishman’s salary public ahead of his debut hosting the Friday night chat show in September. Adrian Lynch, RTE acting Deputy Director General, said: “There’s third parties to that deal. It would depend on the other party. If Mr Kielty is satisfied with it, we can then publish it.”
Sources last night revealed that Kielty was not opposed to his salary being made public. Meanwhile, Lynch revealed Kielty was recently informed of the issue around Ryan Tubridy’s pay. At a lengthy committee meeting yesterday, he said: “As soon as we were aware as an exec board, he was warned it was coming.”
Asked who negotiated his deal, Richard Collins, Chief Financial Officer, said: “I negotiated the deal.” Asked if Collins made the board or just the chair of the board, Siun Ni Raghallaigh, aware of the deal, he confirmed: “I’ve made the chair of the board aware of the deal.”
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Asked if the chair of the board was “satisfied” with the deal, Ni Raghallaigh said: “It still has to come before the remuneration committee of the board.”
The committee will be meeting tomorrow and Kielty’s salary could be known as early as tomorrow evening or Monday morning.
The new host – who lives in London with his wife Cat Deeley – has declined to comment on the crisis, apart from last Sunday when he told a reporter: “I’ll need a few more beers before I could talk about that.”
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