Ryan Tubridy’s cousin David McSavage has defended the presenter amid his ongoing pay controversy and believes the RTE star shouldn't have to pay back any money to the station.
The comedian reacted to the former Late Late Show host being paid €345,000 more over a five-year period than was previously declared, causing outrage among license fee payers and staff at RTE.
But the Savage Eye star – who is Tubridy’s first cousin – backed the presenter to return to his radio job despite the furore, even though bookies Boylesports are offering odds of 1/10 that he will quit the station.
READ MORE: Comedian David McSavage says he 'couldn't care less' who gets Late Late Show job
He told us that the barter account is a "crazy" method for a company to operate - but didn’t believe Ryan owed it to anybody to pay back any money – unless it was illegally obtained.
McSavage said: "That’s a pretty good deal. So, you’re doing business outside of something and then they say, ‘well if that goes t*ts up, we’ll pay you the money that they don’t pay you’. Odd? Isn’t it?"
Asked if he thought the money should be paid back by Ryan, McSavage said it shouldn't unless it was illegally obtained, admitting he didn’t think the discrepancy was a "big deal".
"Oh no, I’m sorry I don't think he should. I’m sure it is a deal that was negotiated for him but if he was breaking the law, then yeah, but otherwise no.
"I don’t think it is as big a deal. I read briefly that they hired to do an independent review. It’s so funny. It’s so classic the whole thing and then they wait for it to blow over and they slowly drip feed you."
On Friday, Tubridy "unreservedly apologised" for not questioning his pay packet over the last five years.
In a lengthy statement, he said: "Further to my statement yesterday, I wish to respond to issues in the last 24 hours arising from RTÉ’s accounting treatment and publication of payments made to me between 2017 and 2022.
"RTÉ’s accounting treatment and publication of payments made to me between 2017 and 2022 contained serious errors.
"While I have no responsibility for the corporate governance in RTÉ or how or what they publish in their accounts, when my earnings were published I should have asked questions at the time and sought answers as to the circumstances which resulted in incorrect figures being published. I didn’t, and I bear responsibility for my failure to do so. For this, I apologise unreservedly.
"For the avoidance of doubt, all my earnings from RTÉ have at all times been included in my company’s accounts that were prepared by my accountant and filed with the Companies Registration Office and all my taxes are up to date. My filed accounts with details of these earnings have previously been reported on in the media.
"At the centre of all of this is trust. The trust of colleagues in RTÉ and the trust of a great many people who listen to my show. To them: I wholeheartedly apologise for my error of judgement."
But he said the controversy is not connected to his reasons for stepping down from The Late Late Show last month after 14 years at the helm.
"I also wish to respond to suggestions that this issue had some bearing on my decision to step down from hosting the Late Late Show. It did not."
Tubridy said it is simply "not true" in response to reports that he did not take a pay cut over the last number of years.
"Separately, it has been reported that I did not take a pay cut over the last number of years. This is simply not true.
"Over the period of my contract with RTÉ, I have been asked to take several reductions in salary and I did. Indeed, between 2012 and today, my pay from RTÉ was cut by approximately 40 per cent."
But he said he was "disappointed" he won't be back on the radio next week, confirming the decision was not his own.
"Finally, I am disappointed that RTÉ has decided that for editorial reasons I should not broadcast my radio show next week. I look forward to returning to the radio show, a job I love, as soon as possible and I hope my listeners and my colleagues appreciate my sincerity on this."
On Thursday evening Tubridy said he was "surprised", like everyone else, about RTE’s under-declaring of his salary to the public and the Oireachtas and said he was "disappointed" to be at the centre of the scandal.
He said: "Like many people, I’m surprised by the announcements made in RTÉ’s statement today regarding the errors in the reporting of its accounts.
"It is unfortunate that these errors are in relation to how RTÉ have reported payments made to me but I just want to be clear: this is a matter for RTÉ and I have no involvement in RTÉ’s internal accounting treatment or RTÉ’s public declarations in connection with such payments.
"Obviously, I’m disappointed to be at the centre of this story but unfortunately, I can’t shed any light on why RTÉ treated these payments in the way that they did nor can I answer for their mistakes in this regard."
Renault – the company understood to be at the centre of the payments scandal – said: "Renault don’t comment on commercial agreements".
Tubridy’s agent Noel Kelly of NK Management also released a statement, saying: "We were made aware today of RTÉ’s statement concerning its accounting treatment and public declarations of payments made to Ryan Tubridy.
"These are matters for which RTÉ has sole responsibility and accountability. There is no issue whatsoever in relation to the payments being properly and lawfully due and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of Ryan Tubridy or NK Management.
"These issues are solely concerned with RTÉ’s internal accounting treatment and public declarations in respect of such lawful payments."
On Friday, a statement from RTE confirmed they had suspended Director General Dee Forbes on Wednesday - a month before she was due to step down from the position.
A spokesman for RTE said: "The RTÉ Board confirms that Dee Forbes, the Director General, was suspended from her employment on Wednesday 21 June 2023.
"There are processes on-going and RTÉ must be mindful of its legal responsibilities and the rights of individuals. RTÉ will not be commenting further on this issue at this time."
On Friday afternoon, Ms Forbes made a separate statement in the wake of her suspension, saying she his "proud" of her '"contribution to RTE" despite "the impact of these issues" which she said is "a matter of profound regret".
"In response to the statements issued yesterday and today by the RTÉ Board I would like to make the following points. I have been fully engaged with the Board since this matter arose in the course of the audit of the accounts.
"When asked in April 2023, I participated in the review conducted by Grant Thornton to determine the full circumstances and facts surrounding two specific payments to fulfil a contractual obligation for the years 2021 and 2022.
"Yesterday was an extremely difficult day for all of us who care so deeply about the organisation and the impact of these issues is a matter of profound regret.
"I am proud of my contribution to RTÉ over the past seven years. Throughout my tenure as Director General , I have always prioritised what I believe are the best interests of the organisation, in order to best serve the public.
"This includes pursuing a difficult cost cutting agenda as part of implementing a wider strategic agenda, all while navigating the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic.
"I will be making no further public comment at this time," she added.
Questions have also been also raised about where funding for a new Deputy Director General post was found following news on Thursday that Adrian Lynch had been appointed to the role. It is understood the post had been vacant.
While members of the press corps were waiting for a press conference with Arts Minister Catherine Martin on Friday, a press release was sent to non-RTÉ journalists about Ms Forbes’ suspension. The RTÉ crew that was there, however, had not received notification.
But McSavage said Tubridy will weather the storm, keep his head down for a while and return to the airwaves eventually.
"He’ll probably get a job in Sky or go to the States (if he did leave). I think Irish people... we’re not as outraged as people in the UK. I think they believe ‘sure look if I was in the same position, I’d be at the same craic.’ Who is going to complain when your manager or your agent gets you a deal like that and money gets shoved into your account.
"I think most people in this country, if they were in Ryan’s position, would be doing the same thing. I think he will hold his head down for a few months or weeks and then he’ll be back because he is a good (broadcaster). I think people do like him."
But several RTÉ staff members told us that they were "furious" over the Tubridy pay scandal.
They said the organisation has been "penny-pinching" for several years and often told staff members that there was not enough money to send to certain events or carry out projects.
One staff member said that there have been difficulties for years trying to convince the Irish public to pay their TV licence and this controversy was going to lead to fewer people paying the annual €160 fee.
Another RTÉ worker described Montrose as a "joke". They noted that the top-up payments to Tubs would have funded several journalist positions each year.
McSavage hit headlines in 2016 when he was fined €125 for not paying his licence fee. McSavage told the court at the time that he had been against paying his TV licence because of his grievance with the way RTÉ spent taxpayers' money.
Speaking to us, he said RTE’s wording in their statement on Thursday was "buzz words" trying to "cleanse things that are quite immoral and unethical.
"I’m a relatively intelligent person but there’s words and phrases used when they give their explanation. They’re buzzwords that try to cleanse things that are quite immoral or unethical.
"The thing that annoys me is what f*cking company could you be in where they guarantee a deal that you outside of the company that if it goes t*ts up they’ll pay you the money that the outside company didn’t want to pay you. But they (RTE) are paying it with your money i.e. licence fee money.
"So where is the red line for people who will say ‘ah here, f*ck that now, that’s too much’.
"If you compare the demographic and the size of the country to the UK and you find out what are the UK presenters getting paid, like why are Irish presenter’s getting paid when the market is so small, so I think.
"RTE were making a show of cutting the budget and they were looking for sponsorship to fatten up his pay cheque – isn’t that the idea?"
Asked if he sympathises with Ryan, he said: "There is never much of an outcry when it comes to dodgy numbers because I think certainly if I was in his position, I would be doing the same thing, but the only thing is it shows you that RTE is not a normal company where people are investing their own money. I just think they look at the licence fee payers and take it for granted. I think they think we’re stupid or something.
"Ryan, he’s my first cousin. I don’t know. What I don’t understand is they say we’re doing the right thing and they do the budget cuts but then they’re guaranteeing that. It sort of defeats the purpose of budget cuts in the first place."
Oliver Callan filled in for Tubridy's slot on Friday and the comic addressed the payments scandal as a "good old RTÉ scandal" that was sprinkled with "shambles".
He said: "It's Friday - a bit of a weird Friday, I must concede.
"Clearly this is the last place I expected to be less than 24 hours ago, but here we are, and the reasons are fairly obvious, especially as I get to the review of the newspapers because the usual presenter of the show is the subject of every single front page.
"The wider media, it has to be said, do enjoy a good old RTE scandal - and boy did RTE whip up and serve a cool one for them with a flake on top and sprinkles of shambles."
After encouraging listeners to contact the show with messages, Callan added: "We have a show for you and the ordinary decent staff of the programme have been working away as they always do very, very early in the morning.
"We're all here to serve, and bear in mind they are at the receiving end of all those messages here and across the programmes today. It's an RTE story, so on the one hand 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."
After reading out newspaper headlines about the controversy, Callan added: "I'd say for everyone involved yesterday was like starring in a mini-private episode of Succession with the bombshells and the media chatter, phones buzzing, 'who's going to get the blame for this?', and watching the thing about yourself on the news and television with a fresh pair of underpants within lunging distance, I'd imagine, for everyone concerned."
But in a statement, former RTE chair Moya Doherty said the reputation of RTE has "sadly been damaged."
"At no time during my tenure as Chair of the RTE Board did I, or other members of the Board, have knowledge of any issue relating to certain payments and the profoundly serious lack of transparency involved.
"The matters which have come to light go to the heart of a failure of good corporate governance.
"Up until I concluded my term as Chair in November, 2022, I was not made aware of the issue relating to these payments. I, and my colleagues on the Board, should have been comprehensively briefed on all aspects of the payments and the manner in which they were dealt with in the accounts. The issue did not emerge until after an audit of the 2022 accounts.
"The reputation of RTE has sadly been damaged and this most serious situation is deeply upsetting and unsettling for the many staff, in all aspects of the work of RTE who give their best to the national broadcaster with their talent and their commitment."
And Chair of the RTÉ Board Siún Ní Raghallaigh apologised for the "serious breach of trust with the public" - and confirmed on RTE’s Six One News that the discrepancy had nothing to do with Tubridy’s decision to sensationally quit hosting The Late Late Show last month after 14 years at the helm
She said: "This is a matter of profound regret for the Board of RTÉ. We are well aware that this is a serious breach of trust with the public. On behalf of the Board, I wish to apologise for what has occurred.
"It is clear that RTÉ has fallen short of the high standards that it sets for itself and are expected of it. Once these issues came to light, we acted expeditiously to establish the facts and we are confident that the safeguards we have now put in place will ensure that nothing like this will happen again, and that good corporate governance is adhered to at all times."
