Not a good look. I wonder did he go because this was going to come to light?
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Incorrect invoices
Hiding payment to staff
VAT evasion, which I am not sure if that is RTE or NK in trouble in that case but they should have paid 23% and paid 0% which is against the law.
Tubs from yesterday knew all about the money to keep his wages topped up. Even if he didn't in an imaginary World. He took money for services he never provided. He was been paid that money for event he never done which he admitted.
So why was he sending out invoices and collecting money for services he never provided?
Also why did he not report his wage difference? he was very vague on that
Why again is he paying back the money now after been caught? why didn't he pay it back before?
The VAT evasion and funnelling money via a UK company and different NK companies is not legal. In my view NK was carrying out illegal invoices, I am not sure Revenue will accept the claim he was just following the process sent to him by RTE. IT is up to him to send correct invoices. The "little company". He had profit of over 400k last year. That would have been after his own wages etc. Not a "little company" at all
Nonsense.
How did he 'resign' from presenting the LLS show then?
I think the link with NK is the big thing. If RTE take him back with Kelly as an agent, that will be the end of RTE as no-one will pay the licence fee and mass layoffs will follow.
Even if he broke up with Kelly, you'd want to see a very serious penalty and example made of Tubridy. Eg 6 months suspended without pay, and end to prime time radio or tv slots, huge pay cut, hand back all the extra payments he receives etc
I think the easiest decision for Bakhurst is to get rid of him.
nobody declares there earnings to anyone outside of their accountant and the taxman. I doubt you do, and you wouldn’t be on your own, so why should he.
Ethics doesn’t come into it. How many businesses senior mgmt take pay I increases while letting people go?
He has taken no more than he is contracted to take. Did he get money he wasn’t contracted to get? I don’t think so.
And I feel that if RTE cut him now, they may be liable in court.
Take sentiment and bitterness out of it. And as for ethics, please…..
..
At the time people were saying he carried RTE on his back and for good reason. Companies used to pay hugely for ad slots on his shows. But he also had no competition on the national airwaves or tv. Still a great broadcaster.
Resign from what? He's not on the RTE staff.
He has no options. Nobody else will pay close to what RTE are currently paying him. If he was in demand he would never have went in with a begging bowl yesterday.
So his option is hold out and this his performance yesterday will get him back on RTE and a nice big pay cheque
Or get sacked from RTE, which most people want, and then have to try make it in the big bad World. this is a last resort and with Noel Kelly behind him good luck to that. I was laughing when Kelly was trying to convince everyone he negotiates with Netflix etc, the guy has 70 people working in RTE and hasn't a f**king clue about any of the management, or so he leads us to believe. Netflix would laugh him out the door
Yes and no- yes from a commercial perspective Fair fcks to RT for getting the deal he got but….
From an optics perspective, right now is not the best time to be shouting about your “rights” - he needs to be a little more humble and maybe even admit to a few mistakes or errors of judgement - I’m with you, if you can command such a fee, then feicing take it as it might not be there next time- but optics and “brand” are the ways such people survive or fall so he needs to heed that also - a major turn in public opinion will see him out the door, whether he’s “right” or not.
The amount of refutation that RTE does tomorrow, is the second half. We're only at half time.
Ryan Tubridy and his agent had a nice little back door deal going to keep his pay up. If Renault had kept paying after the first year, we'd be very unlikely to have ever heard of this. None of the ordinary RTE staff would have known.
But they have been caught with their pants down, it's clear this was a mechanism to deceive the public, taxpayer and RTE staff.
It doesn't wash. I don't think any of the public representatives in both those hearings yesterday believed them. Anyone who watched can see through it. There were many others in the media watching yesterday and RTE colleagues and I very much doubt if they buy their line.
Our TV licence is due next month. I'm sure I won't alone in with holding payment until we see full accountability, consequences and change.
The biggest issues for RT for me are:
Not correcting or clarifying his remuneration when it was published. Even if covid didn’t happen and the total was continually paid by Renault, RTE and the LL were a part of that package and RTE was spending money on these events. Foolish to consider them entirely separate
Not clarifying Astus, but this is really more on NK/RTE.
So reputational damage but salvageable I think, but that largely depends on how his colleagues feel. I certainly don’t think he was involved in a purposeful attempt to scam public money.
A lot of the heat in this story will go away once Tubridy is sacked or resigns himself.
But it does appear from yesterday that despite everything Tubridy has no intention of resigning.
What did RTE do that was illegal? So why do you have think there is an 'issue' at all?
Does something has to be legally wrong for it to be wrong?
That has not and never has been the standard for 'scandal'.
Tubridy lied to the public and his colleagues about pay cuts, all the while he knew he had money guaranteed by RTE coming in. And this is taxpayers money. He wasn't getting the money from Renault. He was getting it from RTE.
He can have the money and keep quiet about it OR his reputation.
People can disapprove of the conduct even if it technically legal. And that can have consequences for the reputation and earnings opportunities for someone in a public role.
There’s a chain of restaurants in America called Waffle House. These guys wasted time and waffled and read off pages and repeated rehearsed answers for 6 hours.
What’s of interest here is that NK is RT’s agent and he is central to all matters re RT income. So if RT or who ever spots a possible revenue source for RT and brings it to RT’s notice then the first one that RT contacts should be NK -100%. RTE would have nothing to do with it. The only connection that RTE had/ have with Renault is that it sponsors the LLS. So the deal that RT /NK worked out /should have with Renault was just a pure coincidence re having any connection to RTE in that RT was providing a service to RTE and Renault was sponsoring the LLS.
IMO , I would say that the scheme was initially thought up by NK and RTE fell for it
I watched a bit of it live yesterday afternoon. Am I right in saying that someone asked Noel Kelly did RTE ever ask him before to raise an invoice as 'Consultancy' he said no, never. Then when he was asked why this didn't raise an alarm with him he said something along the lines of 'well RTE is a huge company and we just trusted in their process'.
But the process for decades had been to NOT raise an invoice as Consultancy. Neither himself or whichever accounts staff member who raised the invoice never for a minute thought 'hang on, why are we doing something differently this time than the hundreds of other invoices over the years'? That's just BS.
There's a massive difference between seeking an on-the-books pay increase from an employer and an off the books out of sight increase known only to a few which involves a fake invoice.
An awful lot of people don't seem to understand the destinction. I'm sick of hearing the "sure he was only looking for an oul pay increase" excuse.
I’m just not getting the angle of this controversy at all.
I will declare my bias up front, I’m not a Tubridy fan, I think he’s ego is massive, he’s no where near as good as people or he thinks he is. I turned off the toy show over the last few years as it wasn’t about the kids it was about him. And I firmly feel he’s not worth the money he gets.
That being said, he has a contract for the money he earns. He has a contract for the extra money he earns to top up his basic. And he declares it all to the taxman. He has not broke any law. He and his agent got the best financial deal he could for himself, and people are bitter about it?
He’s not required to declare his earnings to anyone, that’s on RtE. He’s not required to correct any figure that is put out into the public arena, unless he feels like it.
When you look at his earnings from RTE yes he didn’t take any cuts, when others did, but he’s a sole contractor, he makes his own contract and can be cut in the morning.
Also, look at Irish society today. Every dog and divil is swindling as much as they can out building, electrical work, selling items with huge cost increase, not portioned to actually what the items increased by, and I’m to suddenly have an issue with RT? I don’t like him, but this is just bitterness towards him.
the issue is with RTE, and should be aimed at such.
And to listen to TDs take aim at his ethics, absolutely beggars belief. Pot kettle black???
Pat Kenny criticises the 6.1 News reports on the Tubridy hearings.
For which he was astonishingly well paid...he was on 500k in 1998 (his "final" year with RTE). By 2002 he was still getting 202k on retainer!
It was unsustainable because it destroyed Tubridy's reputation when the shady deal came to light. Tubridy was guaranteed the payments even if he didn't do the work. It was all a scam and a sham. Tubridy lied to his colleagues who did take a pay cut.
And to receive the payments falsely described invoices sent to front companies in the UK had to be used.
Trying to relate that to pensions is utter gibberish. Your post bears no relation to what actually transpired.
NK sets up a situation that likes or RTE or Virgin media wouldn’t refuse.
This idea the RT is TOO well connected politically. How long more will this be relevant for ?Another one year, 5 yrs, 25 yrs or what. As the saying goes - “ if you have a reputation for getting up early you can stay in bed all day”
was ‘ the well connected situation’ the reason for the way the committees handled RT with the proverbial kids gloves and which also allowed him to raise issues/make statements that were irrelevant , time waiting and self promotion.
it was a very neat strategy trick to raise the concept of the damage done to his reputation and he ‘ must be allowed here and now to right it , SO PLEASE ALLOW ME’ type of approach. Trying to endear himself to the Children of Ireland was part of this and was laughable.
it reminded me of when Charlie H did the chicken run through Ireland to redeem himself and it worked at the time
didnt catch much of it but the couple of things i got from it "rte told me to do it" and " i know nothing" and "sure just send in an invoice,make it for consultantcy fees" i had thought the nuremburg defence went out of fashion in the late 1940s? and yeah manuel was funny on faulty towers id have thought these lads wouldve know to the penny what was coming in and going out,i know very little about raising invoices or best business practice but surely thats straight out fraud?
The squirming going on about Ryan Tubridy and whether he knew about this scandal when he stepped away from the LLS. Anyone who accepts that at face value needs their head checked.
That biggest untruth of all is to accept he stepped away from that gig and this is all a coincidence.
If he gets back on air with RTE that's me done with the license fee for good. **** them.
Byrne did LLS, 2 hour radio show, and numerous other programs. A true pro.
There is so much I find incredulous about the responses I heard yesterday:
These are things that just did not happen as we were all told yesterday. I’d do time to rebuff their validity.
I think Bakhurst indicated that consultation with staff would be part of the decision on RT's future in RTE.
You mean the photo of him imitating JFK with the hand on the shoulder of the boy?
Its too late, we've seen it already!
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