RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

This seems like an incredibly convoluted way to get someone money off the books. Is Ryan suggesting he knew nothing about it and somebody in RTE went on a solo run setting up this scheme out of the goodness of their heart?

Tubs getting paid an extra 345,000. The TV License is 160.

2156 people have to pay their TV license to fund the EXTRA 345000 that Tubs was getting.

Maybe this might spark a debate on the dreaded TV license.

Same here. The source of the money wasn't coming directly from RTE so Tubs wouldn't really have seen it but would be part of the other sources of income he gets from promotions openings etc.

RTE got it wrong.

I mean did they have a transition year student writing the contract?

The advertiser pulled out and they were still liable to pay for his appearances. If it wasn't deliberate it was incompetence. Or maybe they're just not that bothered about where the endless supply of money goes.

It's long known that RTE squanders money. And then they have the cheek to ask for an increase on the licence fee.

2 presenters for Prime Time. No idea why. Just one example of a waste of money.

This makes the whole unpaid tv licenses and extra funding RTE is looking for all a bit suspect - how many more “stars” got paid like this?

Not saying they won't circle the wagons in time, but they did lead with it on the News and spent twenty minutes talking about it. David McCullough asked some pretty pertinent questions to the head of the board - like what the hell was going on, how can there be massive fees on top of the payments themselves and who authorised this? will heads roll etc - she was often left stumbling around with no substantive answers - and other RTE reporters did bring up the reputational damage and the issue of complaining of having a funding crisis while you're secretly funnelling away hundreds of thousands. Whatever about it, you'd have to say RTE news themselves have so far given it plenty of coverage.

I never liked Tubridy. Always thought he was an absolutely useless presenter across TV and radio. But I don't know if I would blame him so much here as RTE itself. I'm open to correction here and I'm more than willing to get all mad and pissed off at him.

It is of course RTEs fault but he was happy to play along and not correct the record either for all those years where the wrong amount was published.

This opens a complete can of worms for RTE. They need to explain why they acted as a middleman between RT's own company and this commercial partner - why didn't they deal with him directly. Additionally, they need to explain why they went guarantor on a third party deal.

It absolutely stinks of trying to present a false narrative to the public, using accounting tricks to hoodwink the public. RTE needs to go. Truth matters me bollocks.