RTE has apologised for a “serious breach of trust with the public“ as it emerged that hidden payments of almost €350,000 were paid to top presenter Ryan Tubridy over a period of five years.
In a statement issued this afternoon, the RTE board said that between 2017 and 2022, Mr Tubridy received a series of payments totalling €345,000 above his annual published salary, which were not declared to the public and the Oireachtas.
The payments were uncovered after the company's auditors alerted the board to some of the transactions.
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The statement said that a review found that under a separate agreement Mr Tubridy was guaranteed by RTÉ an additional annual income of €75,000 which was intended to come from a commercial partner.
One of the payments came from a commercial partner of the station, in exchange for a number of personal appearances a year.
"As part of this agreement, RTÉ in turn issued a credit note to the commercial partner thereby reducing the cost to it of its overall sponsorship arrangement with the organisation," the statement said.
"The commercial partner did not renew this agreement for a second year, and since the agreement was guaranteed and underwritten by RTÉ, the payments were instead made directly by RTÉ to Mr Tubridy's agent (on his behalf)."
As a result Mr Tubridy received two payments of €75,000, totalling €150,000 in 2022 for that year and the previous year.
These payments were recorded in what is known as a "barter account", which are commonly used in the marketing and advertising sector to enable goods or services to be exchanged for money.
The statement also said that further investigations had revealed that between 2017 and 2019, Mr Tubridy received a total of €120,000 more in payments from the station than had been previously publicly stated.
The reasons for these payments are currently under investigation, it added. The RTÉ Board said that as a result of the developments, it is necessary for it to correct the public record in relation to Mr Tubridy's earnings from RTÉ during the period 2017-2022.
These have been published by the organisation this afternoon.
"The RTÉ Board considers the public mis-stating of RTÉ's financial information to be a very serious matter and has moved as quickly as it could, once it had independently established the facts, to publish the correct figures," it said.
The statement added that the board has conducted an internal review of the reporting of the remuneration of its top 10 most highly paid on-air presenters and this has found that the full cost to RTÉ of its contracts with the other such on-air presenters has been correctly reported.
"The Board is committed to ensuring that there is appropriate accountability for what has occurred," it said.
"That process is ongoing, mindful of individuals' rights, and affording them due process."
Chair of the RTÉ Board Siún Ní Raghallaigh 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.”
Calls to a rep for Ryan went unanswered at the time of writing.
The board said steps have now been put in place to ensure these matters do not occur again.
The board said it has now requested Grant Thornton to review the contracts of RTÉ's top 10 most highly paid on-air presenters to independently validate that all remuneration figures have been correctly stated and accounted for by the station.
The auditing company is also to examine the understatement by the company of Mr Tubridy's published remuneration by €120,000 in the period 2017-2019.
The company said it is also pausing all new on air presenter contracts until the following processes are in place: the board's Remuneration Committee has full oversight and approval of the terms of contracts relating to the top 10 most highly paid on-air presenters "in value and any material variations or amendments to those contracts".
It also intends to bring barter account within the control of the finance function with specific controls to be put in place.
But Arts Minister Catherine Martin siad in a statement this afternoon she will hold a meeting with RTE officials on Monday after she became "extremely concerned" at the details contained in RTE's statement today.
She said: "I was advised in March 2023 that an issue had come to light in the course of the audit of the RTÉ 2022 accounts, and that a fact finding review had been commissioned by the Audit and Risk Committee of the RTÉ Board.
"I am extremely concerned at the details which were contained in RTÉ’s statement today, on foot of that review being completed.
"I have spoken with the RTÉ Chairperson today, and have subsequently written to her requesting that she meet with me and officials of the Department. The meeting has been arranged for Monday.
"I have asked the Chair to set out in that meeting, in detail, the issues involved, the steps the Board is taking to deal with the matter, the follow on action that will be required, and the timeline for these actions.
"The public rightly expect much higher standards of transparency and accountability from Ireland’s Public Service Broadcaster.
"It is unacceptable that these have not been met. It will be critical for the Board to identify whether there are wider governance issues that need to be examined and addressed, and to ensure that there is appropriate accountability for what has occurred.
"It will be equally important for the Board to demonstrate that it is putting in place appropriate structures and processes to prevent a recurrence of a matter of this nature."
Tubridy will not present his radio show tomorrow morning, it has been confirmed.
