Mr. Ryan Tubridy:

In discussions with RTÉ in March 2020, it spoke about how it would treat this in its accounts. RTÉ said that for accountancy reasons, it was going to take the €120,000 off the previous three years' contracts. That is €50,000 in year five, €50,000 in year four and €20,000 in year three. Those are extraordinary figures and we said that this did not make any sense as we had not invoiced, received or refunded the €120,000. We asked how it could be deducted and we thought it seemed mad. We thought that RTÉ's proposed treatment of this would give the impression that I was being paid €120,000 less than I was being paid. We made it clear that the €120,000 should not be taken off or deducted for prior year actual earnings, as can be seen in the booklet on pages 14 and 15. RTÉ appeared to agree with our point and it accepted our amendments in the final letter of agreement on this issue, as detailed on page 16 of the documents provided. However, on 21 and 23 January, when the salaries of the top ten earners were published, RTÉ appears to have reverted, oddly, to its original stance and deducted the €120,000 as it originally said it would. We were surprised to see that.