RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

odyssey06 · 12-09-2023 01:44PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121100910#Comment_121100910

It's a one hour slot... back in at RTE he'd have lots of opportunities for topping that up. I'm sure he could afford the hit for 2 years knowing he is back on the gravy train.

raspberrypi67 · 12-09-2023 01:53PM

Nowwe see that RTE paid out nearly 1M in allowances, 650K for car allowances...It could not get any better....I mean what the Holy F........

RoTelly · 12-09-2023 02:07PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121100681#Comment_121100681

What is odd is that they paid 650,000 in car allowance is a company that was supposed to be broke and finding difficult in the current market.

650,000 in terms of TV could provide you with an additional 13 episodes of lifestyle programming, 2 to 6 episode of a drama or comedy, at the lower end of budgets.

RTÉ seem to know how to spend money on everything but content.

If you were to add up to 16 staff to your digital radio stations to improve them, or invest it in radio comedy or radio drama.

650,000 could even pay for a staff to look after the RTÉ News channel.

Moving expenses (Dee got 50k in 2016, she was spending her time between cork and london so should not have been entitled to this)

Car allowances (650k)

Annual new season parties (70k)

All of these incidentals add up.

awec · 12-09-2023 02:10PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101051#Comment_121101051

Paying car allowance is cheaper than paying higher salaries. This arrangement saves RTE money.

The larger the proportion of an employees income from RTE is car allowance vs standard salary, the more money RTE is saving.

MrMusician18 · 12-09-2023 02:25PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121100929#Comment_121100929

It was a one hour slot last year with all the associated perks and he was getting about €200k for it, and I suspect that before all this broke he was expecting to get similar.

While I don't doubt that he can afford the hit and could well be taking a long term view it's remarkable how much less he was willing to take to stay in rte.

ButtersSuki · 12-09-2023 02:32PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121100681#Comment_121100681

Well hands up there’s an awful lot I didn’t know about that particular subject!

Hyperbollix · 12-09-2023 02:35PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101165#Comment_121101165

It's not really that remarkable though is it. Tubridy's salary over the last decade plus, bore no relationship to his abilities or talents, whatever they may be.

He was just in the right place at the right time and capitalized on a crazy situation of poor governance within a public sector organisation. His natural level is lunchtime filler radio with a salary well south of 200k pa. He's no fool. He's knows he's been staggeringly fortunate and why wouldn't he want to keep the easiest gig in Irish media for what would have been a still, eye watering fee for so little work and effort. There's a reason why the national broadcaster is always going to be viewed as the pinnacle for anyone in media. Big audience share, big salaries and performance not necessarily the primary consideration.

Furze99 · 12-09-2023 02:37PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101079#Comment_121101079

Tax avoidance basically, not tax evasion but using the rules as a state body to minimise taxes etc

awec · 12-09-2023 02:38PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101251#Comment_121101251

No, it doesn't affect tax.

It's a way to increase a person's salary without having to increase employer pension contributions or bonus payments.

odyssey06 · 12-09-2023 02:39PM

Summarising latest news from The Journal ahead of Media Committee tomorrow... I remember previous comments to the Committee where RTE downplayed the cost of promoting the Toy Show Musical.

RTÉ HAS REFUSED a request from TDs to release the names of its top 100 earners.
Documents showing that 61 people received a car allowance at the broadcaster last year, which came to a total cost of €656,651... The range of the allowance was between €1,000 and €25,000 a year, with the most common allowance being between €12,5000 and €13,000 a year.
Other documents in the tranche show that the airtime given over to promoting last year’s Toy Show the Musical had a “notional” value of €1.3 million. The musical was a commercial flop, making just €495,961 in revenue against costs of €2,699,193. In total, the project made a loss of €2,203,231.
RTÉ representatives are due before the committee tomorrow at 1.30pm. It will be the first time RTÉ has appeared before the committee since it parted ways with Ryan Tubridy.

https://www.thejournal.ie/rte-top-earners-6166651-Sep2023/

hamburgham · 12-09-2023 02:50PM

I bet the employees of Virgin and Newstalk are slack jawed reading the list of allowances Rte staff are paid. The staff have gone very quiet now. You always knew that once anyone got into RTE, they were on the pig’s back.

ButtersSuki · 12-09-2023 03:15PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101265#Comment_121101265

So despite promising to release those Top Earner names to an Oireachtas Committee they’ve now decided “no, we won’t”? Like who TF do they think they are?

tayto lover · 12-09-2023 03:17PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101079#Comment_121101079

They should work for their wage with no bonuses and they should pay for their own cars like the rest of us.

awec · 12-09-2023 03:19PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101450#Comment_121101450

They do pay for their own cars. A car allowance is a fairly widely used practice across numerous industries, this isn't some public sector / semi-public special case thing.

jmcc · 12-09-2023 03:41PM

Tubridy was so eager to get back on RTE that he effectively offered to pay RTE that 150K.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/details-of-ryan-tubridys-draft-radio-contract-show-he-agreed-to-repay-150000-renault-money-to-get-back-on-air/a1401383636.html

Guess that without his RTE show, he's just a regular nobody with a Sixties fixation.

Regards...jmcc

RoTelly · 12-09-2023 03:48PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101079#Comment_121101079

So here is the thing, RTÉ cannot afford to pay their higher earners they money that they may expect (RTÉ have stated this, by saying they have no money), so here's the thing RTÉ decide they pay them their salary as is and tell them if they want to go find a better job to find a company to work for that will pay them more. RTÉ have pointed out that they have one of the lowest turnovers of staff in the country.

Regardless of Car allowances there are plenty of other things RTÉ are wasting money on, that could be used for content.

You seem to be under this false fallacy that RTÉ employ the best people. I think this period must show you this is clearly not the case.

hoodie6029 · 12-09-2023 04:24PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101557#Comment_121101557

Tells us what we already knew, he needed RTE much more than they needed him. So much for market competition and all the other BS we’ve been hearing for decades. He’s was willing to ‘pay to play’ cos he knew he could still milk the place and had nowhere else to go.

HildaOgdenx · 12-09-2023 05:07PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101237#Comment_121101237

Spot on.

The 170k fee/ salary that he was about to return to the radio for, is still absolutely scandalous when you think of the hours involved and the amount of work he puts in.

Definitely one of the easiest gigs, closely followed by those held by some of his former colleagues who are still coining it with their ridiculous salaries for a couple of hours work, at most, per day.

Plus the fact that RTE is going down the Swanee river, in debt. Scandalous.

Pelvis Parsley · 12-09-2023 05:21PM

He was that desperate to come back, word class and in demand as he is, that he was effectively working for €20k for year 1-given that he'd undertaken to return the €150k he didn't earn.

I can't believe there isn't more of an uproar about this.

Caquas · 12-09-2023 05:24PM

In all the discussion of this story, has anyone asked an obvious question - what negotiations were there about Tubridy’s future earnings after he announced that he was stepping down from the LLS?

Was there even a discussion in which e.g. the outgoing DG said the matter would be handled by her successor? The figure of €170K which leaked when a deal seemed done with Bathurst would have been a shocker when he jumped ship from the LLS.

Could it possibly be that Tubridy (and Noel Kelly) expected - don’t laugh- to maintain his income while dropping a major part of his work? That sounds mad but if no one in management raised the issue with him after the huge fanfare about his announcement, he could reasonably assume that it was agreed.

jmcc · 12-09-2023 05:35PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101987#Comment_121101987

Possibly less than 20K after the NKM agent fee and taxes,

Regards...jmcc

saabsaab · 12-09-2023 06:25PM

Unlike hospitals etc. RTE could disappear and not be needed (I am not in favour of this). At a minimum RTE should relocate and sell Montrose. Take the opportunity to sell off certain functions and reduce staff. Any real change won't be coming from inside RTE but from above.

Rubberchikken · 12-09-2023 06:46PM

I don't think rte should be refusing any information that PAC is asking.

If the rank and file staff want rte to be seen as professionally and honestly run then any info requested should be released.

If the board, management 'top earners' are holding out then maybe it's time the government grew some b@lls and reminded them who exactly pays their overinflated salaries

ButtersSuki · 12-09-2023 06:48PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101930#Comment_121101930

I’ve always said on a like for like basis, Tubridy offers genuine value for money compared to Joe Duffy.

A relative statement if ever there was one for sure as both are grossly overpaid, but he’s much more professional, articulate, and even worked more hours than Duffy.

You’d think Joe would be grateful he’s gotten away with it for so long but no, every 6 months or so we get an NKM-penned puff piece that you’d be forgiven after reading it for thinking he’s on the verge of ringing the Vincent DePaul for a handout. I’ve heard from a very reliable source that he’s one of those who shall we say wasn’t exactly agreeing with the DG that contracts would have to be re-evaluated. I’d say most definitely his current contract in RTÉ will be his last. And good riddance.

retalivity · 12-09-2023 07:20PM

Tubridy should apply for this, is over and above what he was offered before and gives him a foot in the door. And sure doesnt he love photography?

https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-41224108.html?fbclid=IwAR27QlXF3XOTSqQ0wyWGrZK6-KfPAdG5VG_98QryTrCsuf8R1Fy4-1cVyxQ

All is fine on planet montrosia

Frank Grimes · 12-09-2023 07:24PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121102366#Comment_121102366

If he still had a show he might be able to put out thinly veiled requests for freebie top of the range professional photography equipment, his current situation rules that out so he probably won't bother.

hotmail.com · 12-09-2023 07:43PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101461#Comment_121101461

RTE has been supposedly broke for years, requesting a bail out every year.

Furze99 · 12-09-2023 08:16PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121101259#Comment_121101259

When an employer raises an employees salary, they have extra costs too? Inc employers PRSI, which is effectively a form of tax. Now maybe RTE as a public service employer don't pay employers PRSI etc. I'm more familiar with private sector.

As for the employee, you may be more familiar with the ins and outs of BIK for car allowances. I suspect though that it may be more tax efficient to receive increases in payment this way as opposed to a salary increase? If it is, this is legit - but a form of tax avoidance.

awec · 12-09-2023 08:21PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121102533#Comment_121102533

From a tax point of view car allowance is treated the exact same as salary. A salary of 200k is the exact same as a salary of 180k with 20k car allowance from a tax point of view.

The car allowance is added to your pay slip before any of the tax calculations are done.

For an employee, it's better to have no car allowance and a higher salary.

awec · 12-09-2023 08:24PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121102423#Comment_121102423

Again, car allowance is an effective way for employers to reduce costs.

RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

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