The Irish national broadcaster, RTÉ, has announced Ryan Tubridy will not be returning to his presenting role after a controversy over the under-declaration of his salary.
The RTÉ director-general, Kevin Bakhurst, said negotiations with the 50-year-old about returning to his radio show had concluded, after stating that trust between the parties had “broken down”.
Tubridy has been off air since 22 June when the under-declaration of his salary was first revealed by the RTÉ board.
Bakhurst said: “We went into negotiations with Ryan in good faith and in the hopes of reaching an agreement that would see Ryan return to his RTÉ Radio 1 show.
“I have decided not to continue with negotiations and, as such, there are no plans for Ryan to return to his presenting role with RTÉ at this time.
“Despite having agreed some of the fundamentals, including fee, duration and hours, regretfully, it is my view that trust between the parties has broken down.”
Ireland’s public service broadcaster was criticised after announcing it had understated Tubridy’s earnings by €345,000 (£295,000) from 2017 to 2022.
The crisis at the broadcaster has since widened beyond Tubridy’s pay to RTÉ’s internal financial, accounting and governance practices, and its expenditure on corporate hospitality for advertising clients.
A report by Grant Thornton earlier this week said it was “very plausible” that fees paid by RTÉ to its star presenter were under-declared by €120,000 from 2017 to 2019 to keep the payments under the €500,000 mark.
On Wednesday, after the publication of that report which found Tubridy had no part in decisions by RTÉ to understate his earnings, he said he wanted to re-establish trust with listeners and return to presenting his radio programme.
Asked by RTÉ’s Prime Time current affairs programme on Thursday evening about the potential for Tubridy to return in the future, Bakhurst said: “Now is not the right time for Ryan to come back, we need to focus on rebuilding trust with the audience. But the door is not shut for ever.”
Earlier this year, Tubridy stood down as the host of RTÉ One’s The Late Late Show, Ireland’s longest-running TV chatshow, with Northern Ireland comedian Patrick Kielty announced as his replacement.
A spokesperson for a media agency representing the presenter told the PA news agency Tubridy was not making any comment on the matter.
In June, the director general of RTÉ, Dee Forbes, resigned over the undisclosed payments to Tubridy.
The Late Late Show, which first aired in 1962, is considered the second-longest-running late-night chatshow in the world, after the Tonight Show in the US.
