RTÉ suspends key board member following Ryan Tubridy payments

RTÉ has confirmed that it has suspended one of its board members following a recent investigation into Ryan Tubridy’s pay.

The Director General of RTÉ, Dee Forbes, has been suspended from her role at the broadcaster. The RTÉ Board chose to announce the news in a statement to the public earlier today.

“The RTÉ Board confirms that Dee Forbes, the Director General was suspended from her employment on Wednesday 21 June 2023,” the broadcaster wrote.

“There are processes on-going and RTÉ must be mindful of its legal responsibilities and the rights of individuals,” they continued, before adding that “RTÉ will not be commenting further on this issue at this time.”

Yesterday evening, RTÉ confirmed that they had recently ordered an investigation into its finances, after it was discovered that the true income of TV and radio presenter Ryan Tubridy had been falsely reported to the public.

Between 2017 and the beginning of this year, the former host of The Late Late Show received an extra €345,000 in payments, on top of his RTÉ salary. 

The extra payments went undisclosed for six years in annual pay statements. Before the misleading payments were revealed to the public, Mr Tubridy was already known to be the highest-paid member of staff in RTÉ.

Following the announcement by RTÉ yesterday, Mr Tubridy released his own statement in which he expressed that the findings of the investigation were “surprising” to him, and that he “can’t shed any light on why RTÉ treated these payments in the way that they did.”

Mr Tubridy has stayed off air today, with comedian Oliver Callan replacing him on his RTÉ Radio One morning show. 

Unions in RTÉ are to hold an emergency meeting today to discuss the revelations.