RTE crisis

[seafoid]

No sign of it ending

https://twitter.com/TonightVMTV/status/1673446390595457024

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/media/2023/06/27/rte-pay-crisis-ryan-tubridy-salary-controversy-dee-forbes-oireachtas-committees/

Some key details of the report

"There has been much speculation regarding the awareness or involvement of members of senior RTÉ management and others in the these arrangements. The following sets out the position:

No member of the RTÉ Executive Board, other than the Director General, had all the necessary information in order to understand that the publicly declared figures for Ryan Tubridy could have been wrong.

The contractual arrangements (2020-2025) with Ryan Tubridy were negotiated by the Director General and the then Chief Financial Officer supported by the RTÉ solicitor and approved by the Director General.

The Director General verbally agreed (via video meeting) to underwrite the terms of the commercial arrangement. Present at this meeting was the Director General, two representatives of the Agent and the RTÉ solicitor. This final aspect had been sought by the Agent throughout the negotiations and there had been significant push back by RTÉ.

Other than the Director General and the Commercial Director no member of the Executive Board had knowledge of the two invoices (9th May 2022 and 6th July 2022 ), the payment of those invoices through the barter account, or any of the circumstances surrounding those invoices.

The Commercial Director has stated that:

Her knowledge of those matters was limited to the instructions received by her from the Director General in connection with the payments in question.

Those instructions were received at a point in time when the arrangements on foot of which the 9th May 2022 and 6th July 2022 invoices ultimately came to be raised had already been negotiated and agreed and to which the Commercial Director was not party

Due to his editorial responsibilities the Director of Content was kept informed of the progress of the negotiations and ultimately signed the 'Five Year Contract' for TV and Radio Services and the letter providing for the early termination of Ryan Tubridy's previous Radio and TV Contract. He was aware of elements of the commercial agreement but not RTÉ's underwriting of it.

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The current Chief Financial Officer joined RTÉ in January 2020. At that stage key terms had been agreed and discussions were at an advanced stage before contract finally being approved by the Director General. He had no involvement in the negotiation of the tri-partite agreement or in putting arrangements in place to facilitate this agreement.

The Director of Audiences, Channels and Marketing provided very specific input in relation to television hours for the Late Late Show. He was aware of elements of the commercial agreement but not RTÉ's underwriting of it. He did not at any stage receive the 'Tri-partite Agreement', the 'Five Year Contract' or any side letters.

The Director of Legal and the Director of Human Resources were not involved in the negotiation of any aspects of these arrangements but were simply aware that negotiations were taking place. The Director of Human Resources had no sight of any correspondence relating to the matter.

All these events predate the recent appointment of the current Director of News and Current Affairs.

The Director of Operations and Technology and the Director of Strategy had no awareness of or responsibility for any aspects of these arrangements.

RTÉ's Solicitor's office provides legal advice in relation to contracts for RTÉ and take instructions from the business. It does not have authority to set, agree or approve the terms of any contract.

The Grant Thornton review makes no finding of wrongdoing on the part of Ryan Tubridy in relation to any payments made by RTÉ.

Ryan Tubridy was not aware of the credit note provided by RTÉ to the commercial partner.

RTÉ issued the credit note to the commercial partner in July 2020 which should have been publicly disclosed as part of Ryan Tubridy's earnings for that year. RTÉ understands that Ryan Tubridy did not receive this payment from the commercial partner until 2021.

The additional payment to Ryan Tubridy for 2021 was paid in 2022 but in line with RTÉ's approach to the publication of the top ten earners it was attributed to 2021 in the recent restatement of Ryan Tubridy's earnings.


The Grant Thornton review makes no finding of wrongdoing on the part of the commercial partner.

[armaghniac]

A couple of things about this. I do not see Tubridy as a rare star, he is not Gay Byrne or even Pat Kenny, I do not quite see why people are throwing away their reputations on his behalf. If there was second contract which wasn't operational because of Covid then the obvious thing was to just go to him and say that because of Covid there were no appearances and so no payment. What was he going to do, sue you for not getting appearance money during Covid when he was still making a pile? But also I am surprised that Tubridy himself got into this mess, he had a good income coming in and ways to earn more, that being the case you would think that more money at the expense of his reputation was not worth it. OK he can go to England or whatever, but he has years ahead of him in Ireland and it would be sensible to keep the public onside so that he could be events etc in that time.
It is a bit like Nicola Sturgeon, I don't see why such a person with years ahead of them would shred their reputation for the sum involved.

[Tony Baloney]

shred their reputation for the sum involved.

Working on the presumption that either they won't get caught if they believe what they are doing is wrong, or belief that there is a contractual obligation therefore they are covered. Either way it's only an issue when the public hear about it. He should have offered a mea culpa on Day 1, "my accountant handles these matter so I wasn't fully aware and had I known..." etc. etc. and offered up the balance to either be returned or paid tax free to a charity.

[seafoid]

The crisis management by RTE and Tubs has been poor. ¨¨
This was in the FT a while ago :

"It is not complicated. Any half-competent flak knows the drill. Own the bad news. Make sure colleagues and partners are prepared; go public quickly, clearly, and completely; be accountable; be available. Candour is a sign of respect."

The longer it drags on, the worse it gets.

[armaghniac]

shred their reputation for the sum involved.

Working on the presumption that either they won't get caught if they believe what they are doing is wrong, or belief that there is a contractual obligation therefore they are covered. Either way it's only an issue when the public hear about it. He should have offered a mea culpa on Day 1, "my accountant handles these matter so I wasn't fully aware and had I known..." etc. etc. and offered up the balance to either be returned or paid tax free to a charity.

If I was Forbes then I would have emailed legal to make sure that they were obliged to pay out given Covid (force majeure type thing)
and/or emailed Tubridy to see if he insisted on payment in the circumstances. If she had done that then she would have good case today.

[Eire90]

some conspiracy  people out there saying tubridy was paid extra to promote vaccines  did tubridys payments not start before 2020 i think.

[seafoid]

In 2007  RTE earned 440m- 190m TV licence and 250m ads.

"Recession, the rise of digital advertising giants Google and Facebook and stronger competition from Virgin Media Television and the UK channels selling advertising in this market have all combined to reduce RTÉ's commercial revenues by 39 per cent since a 2007 peak. In 2018, they stood at €150 million."

So income is €100m lower than 2007.
That is the core problem

[manfromdelmonte]

Nepotism in rte is huge

How did a talentless beanpole like tubridy end up earning that much money

He's also very well connected in political circles and PR circles which helps

[Captain Scarlet]

Toy Show The Musical - loses money but not sure how much
Leaks from new top boss interviews - massive breach of confidentiality
GAAGO and RTÉ is surely bad governance
Then this craic - like these people are not good at their jobs. This Tubridy deal is just bad business.

[Captain Obvious]

Main news on RTÉ news the last numbers of days has been about RTE. Did Tubridy leave the Late Late show knowing this news was coming?

[tiempo]

Main news on RTÉ news the last numbers of days has been about RTE. Did Tubridy leave the Late Late show knowing this news was coming?

16 March tendered his resignation
17 March auditors contact board about concealed payments to Tubridy

The spiv's spiv

[trailer]

The old mental health card comes in handy. It's a pandemic of it own now.

[seafoid]

Tubridy is probably finished at RTE.

[seafoid]

https://www.irishtimes.com/politics/oireachtas/2023/06/28/live-rte-pay-scandal-latest-ryan-tubridy-salary-controversy-oireachtas-committee-dee-forbes/

Seamus Dooley had more to say.

"What is really important is today does not become some sort of punishment beating for RTE or indeed that it gives succor to those who are in the long grass who have been attacking public service broadcasting.

"It is within the gift of the executive board to explain in detail and probably tedious detail who did what and why. Why did I sign the contract? Why did I not advise Dee Forbes that this bit doesn't make sense. And that's necessary. It's necessary to explain why public money was spent by RTE to provide receptions and opportunities for Renault.

The reality is that RTE doesn't have a crew in the Midlands at the moment, yet RTE provided technical staff and facilities for receptions. So literally it means giving the committee that information and if they don't, it will just become a slagging match.

"RTE is a very good public service organisation. It serves the public very well. It's an organization I know probably too well at this stage. The problem is that there are a number of politicians who don't like public service broadcasting. There are a lot of media commercial companies for whom RTE is a rival, and there is nothing more eloquent than vested interests disguised as points of principle. And what I would be fearful of is that because of the actions and inactions of the executive board, it just becomes an opportunity to attack RTE. And the most unforgivable thing from the staff point of view is that the executive board has allowed this to happen."