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06th Jul 2023

Ryan Tubridy set to be off air for months but will still be paid

Ellen Fitzpatrick

Former Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy will continue to be paid by RTÉ, the national broadcaster’s interim deputy director-general has said.

Ryan still contributes to a weekday radio show despite stepping down from the late night show on a Friday evening but has not been on air for “editorial reasons” following the scandal surrounding his mispayments.

Appearing before the Oireachtas media committee, RTÉ boss Adrian Lynch said: “There were negotiations going on about a radio contract [for Tubridy], those negotiations – as a result of all of this – were suspended.

“So currently, as we said, we are still paying Ryan Tubridy and there are certain elements of the contract that are in dispute with the agent.”

He has also confirmed that Ryan will not be returning to his RTÉ Radio One programme next week.

The Irish Daily Mail also reported that Oliver Callan is expected to take over Ryan’s position for at least six weeks until August.

As the media committee questioned members of the executive board of RTÉ over the pay negotiations for Ryan, including a pay cut, the former chief financial officer at RTÉ Breda O’Keeffe said: “During my negotiations up to March 2020, they (Tubridy and agent) didn’t refuse to take a cut, it was the level of cut that we disagreed on. So there was a cut.

“When I left RTÉ, the level of fees that we were discussing were lower than he was earning under his contract. So he wasn’t rejecting (a cut).”

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