Ryan Tubridy has insisted that he was not aware of the payments “debacle” when he decided to retire from the Late Late Show as he denied being “overpaid by RTÉ”.
He will say today that he is “hopeful that I will soon get back on air to do the job I love”.
During two crunch Oireachtas Committee hearings on Tuesday, his agent Noel Kelly will say that the under-declaration of Mr Tubridy’s earnings has been “entirely a mess of RTE’s own making”.
He will also argue that the figures published by RTÉ for Mr Tubridy on June 23 for 2020 and 2021 are “wrong” and “overstate” how much he was paid.
READ MORE: Ryan Tubridy Oireachtas LIVE updates as star and agent face marathon grilling over RTE scandal
A four-page opening statement from Mr Tubridy, an eight-page opening statement from Mr Kelly and a 39-page booklet arrived shortly before 8.30am on Tuesday.
In his opening remarks, Mr Tubridy will say that there was “zero connection” between this controversy and his decision to retire from the Late Late.
He will say: “I made my initial decision to leave The Late Late Show almost a year ago. Around this time, I mentioned it to those closest to me, my family and my agent. They were surprised, very surprised to say the least.
“I explained to them that, among other things, I had left a lot on the studio floor after Covid. I was burnt out and exhausted – like so many people in the country. I turned it over in my mind over a few months, but by the time I got to January, I was absolutely certain of my decision. I was convinced that it was time to go.
“There is ZERO connection between my departure and this very raw situation of recent weeks. I informed management on March 13th of this year.
“I first became aware of the Grant Thornton review in May – some two months later. Even then, I had no inkling of the bombshell which was to come when RTÉ released their statement on June 22nd.”
Mr Tubridy will deny the suggestion that he did not take a pay cut, insisting that he took a 20% pay cut from RTÉ in his 2020-2025 contract.
He will continue: “I was not overpaid by RTÉ at any point. I fully accept I am very well-paid but I was paid fully in accordance with my contract, which my agent negotiated openly, honestly and in good faith.
“There are no over-payments. There are RTÉ’s under-declarations – which we challenged them on back in 2020– and there are RTÉ’s over-declarations of what they actually paid me in 2020 and 2021.
“This has caused justifiable anger among my colleagues. I understand their anger. The upshot of RTÉ’s inaccurate declarations is an impression that I have been less than honest. This is not the case.”
Mr Tubridy said that he was not aware that RTÉ was “concealing payments” to him as he argued that it “beggars belief” that he tried to conceal a secret arrangement with Renault.
He will say that he did not ask RTÉ about the under-declaration of his earnings and that he “fully accepts” he should have. Mr Tubridy will say he was not consulted before RTÉ released a statement about the fiasco.
He will continue: “I am particularly upset and disappointed about the decision and framing of the RTÉ statement of 22nd June which inextricably linked my name to this whole fiasco.
“My name was mentioned 15 times in that statement, and I was not consulted once. I did not have the Grant Thornton Report which RTE had and which RTE acknowledge made no findings of wrongdoing on my part. I asked RTE to clarify that this was the case- they did….four days later after much of the damage was done
“The result? I become the face of a national scandal; accused of being complicit, deceitful and dishonest. I think that statement of June 22nd was very unhelpful in this regard.
“The full truth was concealed. I take full responsibility for not asking more questions back on January 20th 2021 when the figures for 2017, 2018 and 2019 were released. I take responsibility for that. This has been my darkest hour both professionally and personally. I know the same is true for my agent and friend, Noel Kelly and his family.”
Mr Tubridy will say that the fiasco has revealed the “existence of two RTÉs” as he apologised to his colleagues in the national broadcaster. He will finish his statement by saying that he is “hopeful that I will soon get back on air to do the job I love”.
Mr Kelly, meanwhile, will say that it was RTÉ that made incorrect declarations and had not given his team an opportunity to correct them.
“In January 2021, when RTE made its incorrect declarations, they knew what they had paid Ryan,” he said.
“Indeed, the then Chief Financial Officer emailed us on the 19th of December 2019 and she set out the actual earnings for each of the relevant years correctly.
“But just over a year later (January 2021), RTE made false or incorrect declarations about these same figures. In some respects, this was an accident waiting to happen.”
Mr Kelly will say that he had asked RTÉ to give “reasonable notice” when they planned to publish figures.
“If they had done that, we would have had time to check the figures and avoid errors. However, RTE ignored our request for reasons which l don’t understand.”
He will say that the revised figures that were published on June 23 for Mr Tubridy for 2017, 2018 and 2019 were “wrong” and “in both years they overstate the amount they paid Ryan”,
Mr Kelly will also deny that there was “strong pushback” in RTÉ to underwrite the Renault arrangement.
“Next we come to the RTE decision to underwrite this Renault contract.
“This is perhaps the most shocking revelation this morning.
“Since this controversy began, RTE has tried to distance themselves from this decision. “Effectively they have blamed former Director General Dee Forbes for doing a solo run and for giving a verbal commitment to underwrite the contract on a Zoom Call in May.
“RTE executives have said how there was a strong “push-back” against the idea of underwriting the agreement. That is incorrect.”
He will highlight an email from former Chief Financial Officer Breda O’Keeffe which stated that RTÉ “can provide you with a side letter to underwrite this fee for the duration of the contract”.
“To our surprise, Ms. O’Keeffe told the Committee last week that when she left RTE in March there was no support to provide that type of guarantee and no such guarantee was on offer. “But she had written to us making exactly that offer a month earlier.”
Mr Kelly said that he had “no reason to suspect that RTE might be trying to hide payments to Ryan” and he is “shocked that was their intention”.
He will finish: “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.”
Mr Tubridy and Mr Kelly will face a grilling from PAC at 11am this Tuesday morning. They will later be questioned by the Oireachtas Media Committee at 3pm.
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