RTE's Director General Kevin Bakhurst reveals why he blocked Ryan Tubridy's return
Tubridy was due to return to his RTE Radio 1 show late last year after months of turmoil over the RTE payments scandal
by Sandra Mallon · Irish MirrorRTE’s Director General Kevin Bakhurst has opened up about why he blocked Ryan Tubridy's return.
Tubridy was due to return to his RTE Radio 1 show late last year after months of turmoil over the RTE payments scandal.
RTE was criticised after announcing it had understated Tubridy’s earnings by €345,000 from 2017 to 2022.
READ MORE: A look at Ryan Tubridy's London life and family overseas one year after RTE move
Mr Bakhurst said he decided not to agree a new contract with Tubridy because he felt that Tubridy and his team around him failed to take some responsibility for what happened.
Speaking on Sean O’Rourke’s Insights podcast, Mr Bakhurst said it was one of his toughest decisions he has made at the broadcaster.
He said: “Yes that was one of the tricky decisions and as I said publicly before, I knew Ryan when I was here last time.
“I liked him personally and he is talented and I thought the fair thing was.. because I thought RTE should take the majority of the blame of the whole issue but not all of the blame so I thought in the end, the fair thing was to try and put him back on radio so long as he and the people around him would take some responsibility for it and in the end that didn’t happen.”
Tubridy’s statement followed the publication of a Grant Thornton report that found he had “no involvement in the adjustments” that have led to the RTE payments scandal that has plagued the national broadcaster all summer.
“I welcome the findings of the Grant Thornton Report, published today.
“I also welcome the report’s findings that I did not claim €120,000 in fees which was due to me in 2020 and that I did not agree with how RTE proposed to account for this decision.”
While the earnings were publicly understated, there was no impact on RTÉ’s financial statements as a result of these adjustments.
Tubridy’s statement continued: “It is also clear that my actual income from RTE in 2020 and 2021 matches what was originally published as my earnings for those years and RTE has not yet published its top ten earner details for 2022.
“I repeat my offer to publish the details of any future RTE contract.
“I am committed to re-establishing the confidence and trust of my colleagues and listeners, and I hope that any fair assessment of the findings of today’s report will help in this regard.
“Finally, I want to acknowledge the huge support that I have received in recent weeks from people across the country; many cards and letters, greetings on the street and words of support from people I bumped into meant an awful lot to me and I appreciate them all very much.”
Mr Bakhurst confirmed Tubridy was not suing RTE. “There is no legal action,” he added.
Mr Bakhurst also denied rumours that Doireann Garrihy, Donncha O’Callaghan, Jennifer Zamparelli and The 2 Johnnies quit 2FM because of the Register of Interests.
2FM was left in turmoil during the summer when their top talent announced they would all be quitting the station at the end of May.
But Mr Bakhurst said he believes it was nothing to do with RTE implementing a new rule on their external activities.
He said: “Not in the case of 2fm, I mean those presenters left – they were very good – they left for a variety of reasons.
“It could have been partly that, they all told that that was not the main reason that they left.
“I spoke to all of them and the agents as well and they all told me that that was not the fact and that there were other driving factors as well as to why they decided to leave.”
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