Brian Stanley (Laois-Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is another item from RTÉ, No. 2211, which would have been very useful had we had it months ago. It is a copy of a letter from Richard Collins, former chief financial officer, sent on Sunday 18 June at 7.27 p.m. to Siún Ní Raghallaigh, the cathaoirleach of the board. The letter, referring to the Ryan Tubridy situation, says that the current contract is for five years from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2024. The annual fee in the contract was €440,000 per annum. In addition, RTÉ underwrote and guaranteed a side deal of €75,000. This was not mentioned in the contract nor was it reported in the published earnings for 2020 or 2021. It is confirmed in an email from NK, that is, Noel Kelly, to the RTÉ director general, the previous chief financial officer and talent contract lawyers dated 16 January 2020. The previous contract had also been for five years and ran from on 1 September 2015 to 31 August 2020. This was terminated five months early when the current contract replaced it. At the end of the contract, loyalty bonus payment of €120,000 due under this contract was not paid. Instead it was rolled into the annual fee in the current contact. The document sets out the annual fees. He wrote that he had examined the payments to Ryan Tubridy over the two contracts and had concluded that Ryan Tubridy was actually paid €251,250 more than was published over the period 2017 to 2021. He set out that the reasons for that were twofold. The €120,000 bonus due under the 2015 to 2020 contract was credited against earnings in 2017 to 2019. There is no logic for this, he wrote in the letter. The bonus was not accrued in those years. Ryan Tubridy invoiced RTÉ for this and was paid the full amount of his full contractual fee. He gave no subsequent credit note nor did he repay any amount. RTÉ ended up being liable for the side-deal fee in the current contract. This was paid through the barter account that sat outside the normal accountancy and internal controls systems. The fees were recorded in the books of RTÉ but camouflaged as a sponsorship credit note and two consultancy invoices.

It is regrettable that we did not have all that back at the end of June. The date on the letter is 19 June. It would have been helpful had we had that then but we have it now in black and white. Does anybody want to comment? Are they happy enough?