Ryan Tubridy will be paid while off air and five more things we learned from RTÉ’s Oireachtas grilling

Here are the main takeaways from today’s hearing, currently planned to be the final one with executives before Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly appear before the Media and Public Accounts committees next week.

Mystery RTÉ staffer gives car back

There is one RTÉ staffer who had the loan of a car which was not approved for five years.

This car was only returned yesterday, interim director general Adrian Lynch said.

Mr Lynch said he could not name the staff member for data protection reasons, and would not say what role or rank they have as “it’ll be too specific and lead to speculation”.

“I’m sure it’ll come out anyway,” he said.

He said he has been conducting a survey since last week’s committees of who may have cars.

Later on in the committee hearing, Mr Lynch said it is “possible” there may be others who also have cars which has not yet emerged.

Ryan Tubridy hasn’t been paid for a month

Ryan Tubridy has not been paid for a month, it was revealed in the final minutes of the marathon session.

This is despite executives saying repeatedly last week and at today’s meeting that Mr Tubridy was paid.

Mr Lynch said earlier in the committee: “Currently, as we said, we are still paying Ryan Tubridy.”

However, Chief Financial Officer Richard Collins said at the very end of the hearing Mr Tubridy hasn’t been paid in a month.

Fine Gael Senator Martin Conway asked: “Is he still receiving pro rata radio [payments]?”

“No he isn’t. The negotiations were suspended so nothing has been paid,” said Mr Collins.

“No payment has been made, that’s what I said. In the last month.”

In a statement issued after the committee hearing was over, RTE said it will continue to pay Mr Tubridy while he is off air.

“RTÉ has legal obligations under the broadcasting legislation that require its editorial output to be objective and impartial.

“In circumstances where matters related to the presenter are of public interest, it is not appropriate for the presenter to be on air.”

The three barter accounts that were one

Last week, Mr Collins told the Public Accounts Committee there was only one barter account.

However, this was disputed by politicians after documents to the Media Committee revealed three separate accounts.

“There is one barter account. There [are] three companies feeding into that barter account,” he said.

Mr Collins said he looks at the “consolidated” account.

“There is nothing new here, they are all treated the same, the three companies.”

The clash of the chief financial officers

Former CFO Breda O’Keefe said she believed the current CFO, Mr Collins, was “incorrect” when he said in the committees last week he was only CFO for three days when the release of 2017, 2018 and 2019 top earners were released on January 20, 2021.

“The CFO was in the office from January 2020,” she said.

This led to a further clarification from Mr Collins.

Mr Collins later admitted he “confused the years”.

‘Hugely disappointing’ musical

There were further details about the Toy Show Musical after it was revealed it made a loss of €2.2m.

Rory Coveney admitted there wasn’t enough of an audience for the Toy Show Musical.

“It wasn’t from lack of effort,” he said.

“We’re hugely disappointed.”

The musical being put on for a second year has not been ruled out but Mr Coveney said the Convention Centre will not be used again, instead opting for a “smaller” venue.

The Bórd Gáis was also considered as a venue.

The “tipping point” came in the first weekend when a show had to be cancelled because the stars were sick.

Around 6,700 tickets were lost in about 24 hours.

Private club in central London

More than €4,200 was spent across several years on membership of Soho House, an exclusive members-only accommodation space in London.

The membership of the club, some of it during the height of the pandemic, was defended by Head of Commercial Geraldine O’Leary.

She said around 5pc of RTÉ business comes from the UK and previously clients were met in offices, which are no longer there. As a result, clients were met in Soho House.

Ms O’Leary said multinational clients – responsible for a third of revenue – are based in the UK.

“We need to travel to London to meet our customers,” she said.