RTÉ paying Ryan Tubridy less than he sought while off-air, says Kevin Bakhurst

RTÉ has refused to pay Ryan Tubridy the sums he was seeking while off-air following the controversy over secret payments the broadcaster made to him, the company’s director general, Kevin Bakhurst, has said.

While Tubridy is being paid while he is off-air, Mr Bakhurst told The Irish Times that the amount involved is less than what was sought in an invoice sent to the station for the presenter’s services in mid-July.

Tubridy has been off-air since a furore over €225,000 in previously undisclosed payments funded by RTÉ emerged and then enveloped the broadcaster. It prompted several members of the station’s executive board to stand down, the resignation of Mr Bakhurst’s predecessor, Dee Forbes, and put RTÉ under unprecedented political pressure.

Mr Bakhurst said that Tubridy is currently being paid for a radio-only contract, having stepped down from hosting the Late Late Show earlier this year.

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“We didn’t reach an agreement so we’re paying him what we think is reasonable on an interim basis,” he said.

[ RTÉ appoints legal firm to investigate two voluntary exit schemes that ran in recent years ]

[ Discussions on RTÉ's future funding to begin in September ahead of Budget 2024 ]

He indicated that initial talks last month with Tubridy about his potential return to the airwaves were inconclusive, but they have since resumed. He added that there was “an urgency around reaching a resolution now” and that he expected one would be arrived at in “the next week or two”.

“I had an initial discussion with him, we both went away, wanted time to think about it and I felt that we needed further discussions rather than jumping to conclusions,” Mr Bakhurst said. He indicated that the current talks are focused on a variety of matters, including pay.

When asked if Tubridy had sought more money than RTÉ was willing to pay, Mr Bakhurst said: “Well, this is always the case in negotiations, alright. We’re not offering him more than he wants.” A spokesman for Tubridy said he had no comment when contacted.

Addressing the dramatic fall in licence fee payments since the controversy erupted, Mr Bakhurst said it did not represent a threat to the broadcaster’s viability, and that RTÉ was not going to run out of cash this year or next.

However, he did say it could impact on investment, stalling decisions on the company’s digital platform and other parts of his planned transformation of RTÉ. “What it might affect is investment decisions in digital and in transforming the organisation… some of them may have to be delayed until we have a little bit more certainty about funding.”

Mr Bakhurst emphasised the need for action from the Government on a long-term plan for the funding of RTÉ and licence fee reform, but said it would not be appropriate to hold substantive discussions in the coming months.

[ Decision on Ryan Tubridy’s future with RTÉ unlikely until later in August ]

[ RTÉ suffers almost €1m drop in licence fee income in a week ]

According to figures released last week, about €900,000 less was raised in the first week of August from licence fee payments than in the same week last year. This followed a €2.7 million decline in revenue generated from the fee last month.

RTÉ is understood to have undergone periods of decline in the past, with annual licence sales falling by 100,000 individual units in the period between 2018 and last year. But a source said there was now an “intense acceleration of a trend that was already showing undeniable signs of inevitability”.

It was confirmed on Friday that RTÉ has appointed legal firm McCann Fitzgerald to investigate the operation of two voluntary exit packages it ran for staff in recent years.