Eamon Dunphy has slammed Ryan Tubridy and RTE’s ‘grubby little deal’ as he weighed in on the ongoing controversy surrounding the former Late Late Show host's salary.
It emerged last week that Tubridy had been paid an additional €345,000 more than was disclosed to the public over a four-year period between 2017-2021.
Once the news broke, RTE apologised for a “serious breach of trust with the public.” Later that day, Tubridy expressed his ‘surprise’ at the news before stating that it was “a matter for RTE and I have no involvement in RTE’s internal accounting treatment or RTE’s public declarations in connection with such payments.”
On Friday, Tubridy released another statement and said “When my earnings were published I should have asked questions at the time and sought answers as to the circumstances which resulted in incorrect figures being published. I didn’t and I bear responsibility for my failure to do so. For this, I apologise unreservedly.”
Read more: Former 2FM host warns Tubridy payments scandal could be 'death knell' for RTE
Speaking on his podcast, The Stand, former RTE soccer pundit Dunphy gave his take on the situation.
"It was shortly after (Minster Martin found about the pay discrepancy) that Mr Tubridy announced he was leaving The Late Late Show. He was burnt out, had done his thing, and said he was going to do other things.
"Then we had eight weeks, and personally I feel very foolish talking about his courage and patriotism in 'having our back' as he put it during covid.
"The question is, it appears that a great charade was played for a couple of months where Ryan Tubridy earned an enormous amount of goodwill from the Irish public. That goodwill was generated on a basis that was really false, because we didn't know about any of this.
"This was a grubby little deal. It was a grubby stroke...
"I took a €30,000 per year pay cut in 2010. I didn't ask for any publicity for it, in fact I didn't want any publicity. I felt I was being paid too much by RTÉ and I did it privately. I did it with Noel Curran, who was head of TV then.
"Eventually it was leaked to the Irish Times, I didn't care. I wanted to do it because I felt it was the right thing to do and I'm no saint as everyone knows.
"What is disturbing and makes me feel foolish is when other people, an elite apparently, can behave as we believe this case illustrates.
"Those who are responsible in RTÉ won't come out and answer to the public, who pay their wages, for what this grubby little stroke represents."
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