RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

It's still only about 20 hours work a week he will be working and he is getting close to €100k a year for it.

He will have researchers and producers doing the hard graft behind the scenes for minimum/average wage

When you think about it the money paid to radio presenters is nuts.

Yeah, but 6 days a week means no weekends away for a while for poor Ryan.

I better go get a tissue to mop up this mess my bleeding heart is making.

As I said, I listen to the radio a lot, and every programme its a different producer. So, maybe not naïve, just referring to what I have experienced.

I'm wondering is all the gushing love that Tubs has received from the likes of Chris Evans and Piers Morgan simply because they have absolutely no clue about what goes on in Ireland & Irish broadcasting other than what they hear from their friends/colleagues/Tubs 'friends' in the business... or during the brief moments in time where they'd be in Ireland to sell/promote something, and as they waft through RTÉ they get told nothing other than how amazeballs Tubs is... Do you reckon Evans or Morgan have actually listened to a Tubridy radio show? or watched a LLS that they weren't involved in? Wasn't Morgan on the LLS a few years ago? Does anyone even reckon he sat around the green room and watched the show before he went on? or after his segment was finished?

I mean if you were from another country and had never seen Tubridy on the TV, or heard him on the radio, yet someone (who likes Tubs) described his role to you;

• "Has hosted the longest running TV chat show in the world for the last 14 years"
• "Anchors the main radio slot in Irish radio for the last number of years"
• "Is a 'legend' of Irish broadcasting.....

You'd be expecting another Wogan or Johnny Carson to appear and effortlessly move through the show with a sort of suave/sophisticated grace that only the top top presenters have... but instead you'd be seeing a twiggy Tubbers appear with about as much charisma & likability as a mouldy biscuit.

We've watched a few LLS's over the last few weeks (thankfully we were away for the country music one), and although the format is still sh1t, and the guests are still sh1t, there's a certain likability about Patrick Kielty. He seems real, and genuine (despite having to work with utter scut). Anytime over the last 14 years I had the misfortune to put on the LLS with Tubridy at the helm, the overriding thought that always entered my mind was "I'd love to punch this pr1ck in the mouth" (and I'm not a violent person). Everything about him seemed fake. The man never had to work for anything in his life.

The theory mentioned above about his move to Virgin being to both cut some costs at the groups Irish stations, and also to grow their listenership and thus inflate any potential sale price seems very plausible... (and if it comes to be, and Tubs was only a pawn in a larger game to suit the Murdochs, I won't be losing much sleep over it...)

OK, enlighten us.

It will be syndicated so I imagine it will be- hence unlikely he’ll be working weekends but that’s just an educated guess

I think he actually said he was still willing to do the work.

From his point of view, it was money he was entitled to anyway it was just being funnelled to him in the most RTE way possible.

Also he did agree to pay it back when offered the 2 year contract, this seemed to backed by the majority in the PAC.

This contract was pulled by RTE.

Again From his point of view.

He owned the money, he offered to do the work and he offered to pay it back.

TBH I can't see him giving it back now.

The reality is there is one woman who knows everything and for the life of me I can't understand why RT didn't throw her under the bus, unfortunately she has long Covid or something.

Do you reckon it’s possible for the greatest to get a knighthood? what do you think? fingers crossed!

And mugs - all sorts of mugs 🤪