RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

He wasn’t offered it to “turn it down”, he, and his representative, demanded it.

Just reading some of the coverage and it looks far more serious than that. There are management failures and some of the information was not properly logged or tracked. Ironically, this article on RTE's website sums up the main points well:

https://www.rte.ie/news/ireland/2023/0825/1401561-rte/

The issue that may get some more coverage in the run-up to the PAC and Media committee appearances is how a barter account was used to pay Kelly's company for "consultancy" in order to route payments to Tubridy. The use of the barter account wasn't cost neutral. RTE had to pay a fee for processing the payments through the UK company. That made it more expensive to pay the invoices than if the invoices had been sent to RTE directly for payment and RTE had paid them directly.

At this stage, it would not be suprising to see RTE people compelled (the committees have the legal power to do this) to appear before the committees. If the government is looking for the ammunition for major reforms in RTE, this report has provided a lot of it. And all of this would have probably not come to light only for Tubridy and Kelly.

Regards...jmcc

But don't forget, his address was aimed at 17/18yr olds.

It was only 6 or 7 yrs ago that these same people really admired this ToyMan as a hero.

Perhaps he thinks these now grown up teenagers still hold him with a sense of awe?

I know that the PAC & the Media committee have the power to compel DF, BOK and Jennings to appear but what happens if they do a John Delaney on it, as in, say nothing when they appear? It's not as if they are worried about losing their jobs?

Also, how many times can they use an illness as an excuse not to appear?

I'd be a layman myself. Are there any Accountants on here that would kindly make a post about the mechanics of a 'barter A/C' or accounts?

And how it would look on a legitimate company's books. Montrose Inc. a bad Twilight Zone episode, where neither proper Accounting Principles nor f**cking sanity, exists.

It was clear from the start that O'Leary was lying through her teeth and hiding stuff. She could not wait to get out of there. Her spending and use of the barter account needs to be fully investigated. In a normal country she might do jail time.

Is there not a risk they could become suicidal and sue if they are asked difficult questions?

I joined Boards.ie many years ago now. There was a Mod on a certain forum who once said;

Some people's knickers are getting too twisted and some people's not enough.

I think that just about the right amount of twisting is going on. Here, and in general.

Apologists for Tubridy, if they're decent people, would not encourage their children to behave in the manner he has. Nobody likes hypocracy.

More worryingly, his clownish PR Strategy of appealing to the children, is nothing but a misguided attempt to indoctrinate young plastic minds. It makes reasonable people/parents uneasy.

Ironically, Tubridy severely underestimates the level of intelligence of his target audience. For most of them are more mature.



He would be better served stepping out of the public eye for a while and waiting this out IMHO. If a job offer comes up in the UK, he should take it. If nothing like that comes on the table, he could work behind the scenes writing a book or producing some documentaries for TV. At the moment he is the face of all that's wrong in RTE and these public pronouncements are going down about as well as can be expected. The heat will eventually go out of this story and a time will probably come when it's OK for him to resume a broadcasting career in Ireland. Where and for how much are questions for another day. He is guilty of being a greedy bastard but when you compare this to the more recent scandals on British TV (Phillip Schofield, Huw Edwards, Dan Wootton) he's almost a choirboy. Maybe the grown-ups of Ireland will never want to see him back on air but this is something he brought onto his own head. I also think that if he ever comes back to RTE they'll handpick new staff for his show - people who weren't around at the time of the pay cuts. That is the sort of thing that will continue to rankle with the existing staff for quite some time yet.

I'm showing my age here but I grew up watching the Toy Show in the Gay Byrne era. It was a show I loved to watch as a kid but not for the reasons Tubridy seems to think. I had no interest whatsoever in Uncle Gaybo or what jumper he was wearing. As far as I was concerned he was just some auld lad directing proceedings. If we'd had a VCR at the time, I'd definitely have fast-forwarded through Billie Barry and all the other singing and dancing kids. The only things I wanted to see were The Toys, with the books bit coming a poor second. Have kids really changed that much? Tubridy's desperate clinging onto his image as the Toyman and trying to appeal to the children of Ireland is beyond pathetic. Does he not understand that (1) Kids watch his show once a year and then promptly forget about it until the following year? (2) To a child, anybody over the age of 12 is elderly and they're not all that interested in the ones who aren't directly involved in their lives.

I doubt many of the actual teenagers who've done their Leaving Cert give a jot what Tubridy has to say. They'll remember him from those once-a-year Late Late Shows when they were children and are unlikely to have watched many other episodes of it. They're also learning or about to learn where the greed of the older generations has got them. Words from a fat cat who has lived a sheltered, very privileged life have about as much relevance to them as a pep talk from Elon Musk.

I've largely forgotten who RT is at this stage. The king is dead, long live the king etc...

Anyway, back to proposed redundancies. Surely they cannot include the highly paid contractors in such a scheme? Maybe I'm wrong but I thought redundancy could only apply to a contract of employment. Someone might enlighten me.

If that is correct, then the redundancy payments will only apply to permanent employees, not contractors. Who are they I wonder and how much are THEY paid?

The problem for Tubridy is that he is (was) his job and his job is (was) him. Without the LLS and the radio show, he really has nothing on which to fall back. Even though he was a contractor for tax purposes, he was an RTE lifer and now that's gone. That close identification and dependence on fame can't be healthy. The LC video, in that respect, is rather sad.

Regards...jmcc