The RTÉ presenter at the center of the pay scandal, Ryan Tubridy, asserts that he “became the face of a national scandal.”
Politicians and Mr. Tubridy’s representative Noel Kelly have been interrogating him on his compensation from the Irish public service broadcaster.
A financial audit of RTÉ revealed that between 2017 and 2022, Mr. Tubridy received €345,000 (£296,800) more in compensation than was disclosed to the public.
On Tuesday, Mr. Kelly testified before the Oireachtas (Irish parliamentary body) that his client had been made the unwarranted “poster boy” for the issue.
Both advertisement money and the TV license charge are used to support RTÉ.
Since the payments were made public last month, the former Late Late Show host has not previously made a public statement.
He said that the broadcaster “created a fog of confusion” on the undisclosed payments in his opening remarks to the Public Accounts Committee.
“RTÉ’s complete transparency and disclosure would have prevented this,”
“I am here to do one thing and one thing only: to correct the record and to call out some untruths,” Mr. Tubridy stated.
His agent, Noel Kelly, claimed that his client had been unjustly turned into the scandal’s “poster boy.”
However, the Green Party TD Marc Cathasaigh claimed that the revelation of the payments had “shattered” “public trust” in both RTÉ and Mr. Tubridy.
“When you told us we were all in it together during Covid in particular and during the recessions, we believed you,” Mr. Cathasaigh added.
In contrast to his previous five-year deal, Mr. Tubridy informed the committee that he had accepted a 20% wage cut from RTÉ for his contract, which runs from 2020 to 2025.
Mr. Kelly later claimed that between 2015 and 2019, RTÉ paid Mr. Tubridy between €495,000 (£421,430) and €545,000 (£463,998) annually.
According to Mr. Kelly, Mr. Tubridy’s RTÉ salary would drop by 20% to €440,000 starting in 2020.
He did, however, acknowledge that the sum did not include a payment of €75,000 (£63,855) per year made as part of a deal with the automaker Renault in exchange for making public appearances on behalf of the business.
After a year, Renault backed out of the agreement, but it was later discovered that RTÉ had financed certain of the payments, which caused Mr. Tubridy’s pay to be underreported.
Imelda Munster, a Sinn Féin TD (member of parliament), claimed during a hearing of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that “we know that pay cut was subsidised,” despite the fact that at the time, Mr. Tubridy claimed he was accepting it amicably.
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