LATEST: No connection between RTÉ scandal and decision to leave Late Late Show, says Ryan Tubridy

LATEST

Ryan Tubridy reiterated on several occasions during the hearing that his decision to leave The Late Late Show was not linked to the discovery of the accounting issues by auditors.

“The untruth I really, really wanted to clear up here today is there was no, no, no connection between this fiasco and my departure from The Late Late Show, I promise you,” he said.

'CANCELLED'

Ryan Tubridy suggested he has been “cancelled”, as his agent hit out at “horrendous reporting” over issues around his pay at RTÉ.

“People here have families. People need to think about – you’re public representatives – you know what it means when you’re in the middle of something,” Tubridy told TDs at the Public Accounts Committee.

“This is my first rodeo being in the public eye (like this). I’ve never seen anything like it. I don’t know if any of you’ve been cancelled before but let me tell you, you don’t want to be there.” His agent Noel Kelly said they had faced the committees on Tuesday because they had asked to appear.

“We weren’t invited, we asked. And we saw over the last three weeks, I’ve never seen such horrendous, horrendous reporting.

“And why? Suddenly the most trusted man in Ireland, Ryan Tubridy, it was like ‘throw him under a bus’. Why?”

He said he was finding it hard to leave the house.

“My name has been desperately sullied, I think my reputation has been sullied,” he said.

“I’m deeply upset. I’m hurt. It’s hard to leave the house if you really want me to be honest about it.

“For what? I’ve spent three weeks watching people telling stories. I’m not looking for sympathy or violin.” Fianna Fail TD Cormac Devlin said children in Ireland were asking why the host of the Late Late Toy Show was on the news so much.

Tubridy responded: “My relationship with the children of Ireland is so important to me.

“I know that sounds grandiose, but actually it is.

“I want them to be happy and hopeful and proud to be Irish and read lots of books and just be wonderful young people. That doesn’t change, but what’s happened the last three weeks – it’s a frenzy.”

EARLIER:

RTÉ presenter Ryan Tubridy has apologised to his colleagues at RTÉ and thanked people across the country for their support in his opening address to the Public Accounts Committee at the Dail.

He said he understood the anger among his colleagues at claims by RTÉ he had been paid more than was publicly declared.

“I understand that and we’re going to deal with all of that in the next few hours, and indeed the next six hours, or more – we’ll stay for as long as it takes,” Mr Tubridy told TDs.

“I’m very sorry for those whose lives have been made difficult with an incessant dripping of new revelations. I’m thinking particularly, my radio show colleagues and friends, that they’ve had to be put through all of this for reasons not of their own making.

“I’d like to thank the many people from across the country who have taken time to stop me on the street, decent Irish citizens, taking my shoulder or my elbow in their hands and saying ‘you’ll get through this’.

“I have nearly a foot off the ground high of cards and letters from people who’ve written to ‘Ryan Tubridy, Dublin’.”

POSTER BOY

Ryan Tubridy has been made the “poster boy” for the undeclared payments scandal at RTÉ, his agent will tell a Dail committee later on Tuesday.

Noel Kelly will say: “For the past number of years, Ryan has continued to perform at the highest level; working with colleagues and leading shows which bring in tens of millions (of euros) in commercial (activities) and raise tens of millions for charities through the Toy Show Appels and through Covid appeals, and so on.

“We have heard a lot about RTÉ’s public service ethos but let’s call a spade a spade. RTÉ is a hybrid organisation.

“Its commercial activities are key to keeping the station afloat, maintaining jobs and creating content.

“Ryan has been a huge driver of RTÉ’s successful commercial activities for the past 14 years.

“Ryan and I have attracted a horrendous amount of criticism and abuse in the past few weeks because he is such a high-profile and successful figure in Ireland, and he has been made the poster boy for this scandal.

“That is undeserved.”