Irish State Broadcaster RTE Sees Fall in Licence Fee Revenue Amid Anger Over Ryan Tubridy Scandal

People watching television coverage of Ryan Tubridy giving evidence to a parliamentary committee, in Doheny and Nesbitts pub in Dublin, Republic of Ireland, on July 11, 2023. (PA).

The Republic of Ireland’s national broadcaster, Radio Telefis Éireann (RTE), has reported a big fall in licence fee revenue in the wake of a high profile scandal around the earnings of broadcaster Ryan Tubridy.

Mr. Tubridy was RTE’s highest-paid employee prior to stepping down from his role presenting the flagship “Late Late Show” in May, but it later emerged that he received secret payments of 345,000 euros (£296,800) over five years on top of his annual salary of just under 500,000 euros (£428,000).

On Wednesday a highly-anticipated report by auditors Grant Thornton was published and cleared Mr. Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly of any wrongdoing.

RTE’s senior management has been under fire since it emerged in June that the corporation had hidden the payments.

The Irish government launched reviews into governance and culture at the national broadcaster and last month Kevin Bakhurst, a former BBC News executive, took over as director general and stood down RTE’s entire executive board.

RTE this week revealed the number of people paying the licence fee—which costs 160 euros (£136) a year—had fallen by 37 percent in the first week of August compared to the same week last year.

There was a significant fall in both first-time licences and renewals in July and last week Taoiseach Leo Varadkar urged the public to pay the licence fee.

TV owners in the Republic of Ireland, like in the UK, are legally obliged to pay the fee and 85 percent of the revenue goes to RTE to carry out its public service broadcasting commitments.

RTE is partly funded by advertisements, unlike the BBC in the UK.

Mr. Varadkar, speaking to reporters in County Mayo on Aug. 10, said, “I would certainly encourage people to continue to pay their licence fee.”

Varadkar Talks of ‘Real Value’ of Broadcasting

“Notwithstanding the recent controversy, the licence fee pays for our news, pays for arts broadcasting, sports, children’s, Irish-language broadcasting, things that are of real value and I would encourage people to continue to pay their licence fee,” he added.

Unlike in the UK, where several Conservative MPs and ministers have floated the idea of abolishing the licence fee, there has been no political appetite for scrapping the fee in Ireland.

But Sinn Fein TD, Brian Stanley, said the Grant Thornton report underlined “severe levels of concealment that senior management in RTE went to in order to mislead the public and the Oireachtas [the Irish Parliament].”

“The Grant Thornton report is quite clear. Those involved in the decision to under-declare Ryan Tubridy’s salary between 2017 to 2019 engaged in a deliberate process to deceive and mislead,” added Mr. Stanley.

The report found it was “very plausible” the fees paid to Mr. Tubridy were under-declared in order to keep his publicly-stated earnings under the 500,000 euro mark.

In a statement the executive of the RTE Trade Union Group, which represents the broadcaster’s employees, said, “We hope that the reviews on corporate governance and HR established by the government will provide the framework for dealing with the fundamental issues in the report.”

“The trust that was shattered will not be easy to rebuild and trade unions will judge RTE by the actions and attitude of the management and board of RTE from today,” he added.

‘Lapses in Governance’

Media minister Catherine Martin said the Grant Thornton report “highlights further lapses in governance and failure of proper internal controls and processes” at RTE.

She said she has spoken to RTE Chairwoman Siun Ni Raghallaigh and “stressed the need for RTE to act with urgency to address these lapses and ensure that robust processes are put in place without delay.”

Cathy Grieve, a former broadcaster who lives in Dublin, told The Epoch Times: “RTE is a trusted organisation which is woven into the fabric of Irish society. This crisis is about more than one individual. It is about poor governance. The Irish people are disappointed and sickened by some of the behaviour, as are the staff. Many in the news department have come out in protest.”

She added: “We are a small country with huge demands on the public purse. I don’t see the government stepping in to totally fund RTE. The current model will remain and enforcement will be busy.”

Mr. Tubridy took over presenting “The Late Late Show” from Pat Kenny in 2009 but he is currently only presenting a radio show for RTE.

The BBC has been criticised in recent years for the large salaries it pays to some of its top presenters, such as former England footballer Gary Lineker, whose social media utterances landed him in trouble in March.

Mr. Lineker took a pay cut in 2020 but still earns £1.35 million a year for presenting “Match of the Day.”

Because they are funded by the public, the private lives of BBC presenters are also considered a matter of public interest in the British media.

Last month the wife of newsreader Huw Edwards finally revealed he was the broadcaster who had been identified by The Sun newspaper as having been involved in a scandal involving sexually explicit images.

PA Media contributed to this report.