RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

He seems to have been off grid for the last ........ 2 days at least.

My and my wife thought it was hilarious when the camera cut back to her and you could see the glee on her face. We burst out laughing! Fair play to her.

As to her lack of ambition, maybe she has some morals and didn't want to work with a bunch of overpaid, talentless arseholes in RTE. When Tubridy, D'Arcy and Duffy are the top dogs there, it says something about their "talent pool" and management there are clearly scumbags too. Not everybody is a money-grabbing, immoral shill like those that populate RTE: she probably has peace of mind working for Virgin, if a significantly less paycheck.

I much prefer Virgin news, (and Collette) over RTE news too.

Probably found a gorgeous book to get lost in.

It does seem a distraction by RTE though. Recruitment freezes don't necessarily reduce costs. They should have come in with some real news e.g pay cuts across the board (especially for overpaid talent).

Very disappointed with Siun, and all the board, to be honest.

I would have expected Siun, as chair to answer all questions, passing to the executive board only for furhther details. However she seemed complete unsure what was going on. When RTE was asked why the minister hadn't been informed about the reinstatement of the 10% salary cut to the executive, she remained silent and it had to be answered by KB. ( who only said he couldn't understand how that happened, i.e. couldn't understand how lacking in ability the chair was).

All the board seemed to be saying they were kept in the dark until the past month, with the arrival of KB. Which means that Siun , for almost a year, was not ensuring the board got the information it needed to do its' duty.

A bigger problem though is what role is RTE to play into the future. Everyone seems to agree we need public service broadcasting. But everyone also seems to admit that younger people do not engage with broadcast TV. So is RTE's ambition to provide a service to the older population only? Or do they have a new digital strategy which will attract younger people?

Nothing said by Siun would indicate that the board have any idea where they are going. But they want more public money to get there.

I would concur with that synopsis.

Generally speaking, I feel the public are not too concerned about recruitment bans and bans on discretionary spending and the inner workings of RTE.

What they want to see before they pony up their hard earned moolah to Montrose is a curb on the couple of hundred of 'high rollers' both management and

'talent' who seem to have been running the place like their own personal 'fiefdom' for years .They have seen appalling management practices, purely appalling that no commercial company could tolerate and they are being asked to invest in such an outfit with the majority of the same folk there!!!!

Is it any wonder there is withholding of license fees?

There were vague platitudes from management yesterday but nothing really concrete and it would appear that the penny has not dropped yet.

I realise these changes can't be made at the drop of a hat but , some positive measurable robust action must ensue and quickly to prevent the

whole shooting gallery going down the tubes.

The 'Monkstown Mafia' as I heard them referred to have to be taken on and a sense of realism brought into the whole outfit.

The gravy train has hit the buffers.

She needs to be compelled to attend. It can be handled carefully and mindful of adding additional stress. Public accountability is essential in order to restore trust.

Yeah Sheehan was happy to pile in on Tubridy and RTE while Tubridy was still seen as part of RTE. Got in a few zingers too.

But then went full team Team Tubridy with attacks on RTE and the Indo running an obvious campaign to soft rehabilitate Tubridy.

I dunno if that is being done because of ties between Indo and NKM, or if Sheehan thinks this is a better angle to push.

I'd argue for pay cuts at the top levels. Start by removing any allowance to those people. Get them to leave because they can get better remuneration in other companies. Don't replace them if they do go... they won't.

Two things that have never really worked out for RTÉ

1. Sale of Assets
2. Redundancies

Just as an aside. I was stuck in traffic yesterday morning and end up listing to Pat Kenny, he was taking about the Car Allowances and explaining them away. What was interesting that he received 4 or 5 text messages, and they all reiterated the same mantra that we'd seen here on this thread over the previous one or two days.

I never got an answer to how much RTÉ saved on such allowances verus had they been part of the normal pay packet.

But of course here's me thinking, just drop the allowance and don't increase the pay.

“Legal letters have been exchanged” is about the height of it right now I think.

Whether or not it will enter a formal court process remains to be seen. I imagine the sums of unpaid money claimed by RT amount to a multiple of the 150k RTÉ are claiming RT should pay back for the “Renault work” - as I think his contract was up in 2025?

Could be wrong on some of those points but I’d doubt we’ll see any money returned by RT until this issue on pay is legally clarified or agreed by both parties.

TBH- it’s yet another side show- RTÉ should just close it down.

You will also find that many of those comments come from media people, with one or two not working in the industry, or related to the brand in someway.