The dispute between Ryan Tubridy and RTÉ that erupted in the summer of 2023 and ended the broadcaster’s ties with the station is not yet over.
A data access request from Tubridy and his agent, Noel Kelly, is creating a significant amount of work for the station, has already cost it about €100,000 in legal fees, and has the potential to reignite the 2023 crisis.
Any resumption would be par for the course in a saga that already includes boardroom changes at RTÉ, high-profile Oireachtas committee hearings, and talks about Tubridy’s planned return to the Irish airwaves coming to a sudden end.
Tubridy went off air after the station revealed in June 2023 that publicly disclosed information about his earnings failed to reveal the true amount.
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Between 2017 and 2022, RTÉ said, its highest paid broadcaster had earned €345,000 more than previously disclosed.
The new figures meant Tubridy, who already topped the charts as RTÉ’s biggest earner, had an annual income exceeding €500,000 for the years covered by the June statement, a key threshold for the station in its policy of driving down presenters’ fees
Matters to do with his remuneration, Tubridy later explained, were handled by his agent, Kelly, who has conducted negotiations with RTÉ on behalf of a host of well-known figures in the media and entertainment business.
The June revelations caused upset and anger with staff at the station and drama in Leinster House as two Oireachtas committees vied to hold hearings into the high-profile controversy.
Eventually Tubridy and Kelly appeared before both the public accounts and media committees on the same day, as a significant segment of the nation looked on. Tubridy gave the impression he was not just shocked but traumatised, while also seeming less than contrite.
“I’m not here to be critical of RTÉ,” he told the media committee. “I’ve been working there since I was 12 years old, you know. It’s a very important place to me, but I have to defend myself.”
It was obvious that Tubridy wanted to return to the job and as the summer progressed, it appeared his return was likely. Then, in August, the station published a report on the controversy by Grant Thornton, and that same day Tubridy and Kelly released a statement in response.
The following day, the RTÉ director general, Kevin Bakhurst, announced that the negotiations surrounding Tubridy’s return were over, and the broadcaster would not be returning to the station.
Bakhurst went on TV and disclosed that he had spoken to Tubridy earlier that evening. Tubridy had been “shocked and disappointed” by his decision to end the talks, Bakhurst said, adding: “The door is not shut forever.”
Talks around Tubridy’s return in early September at a salary of €170,00 had been at an advanced stage but Tubridy’s statement in response to the Grant Thornton report had “muddied the waters somewhat”, Bakhurst said.
“I don’t actually feel that Ryan was best served by the people around him who advised him on making that statement,” Bakhurst said.
Tubridy now works with Virgin Radio UK, in London, where he presents the Ryan Tubridy Show. He also has a podcast, The Bookshelf, produced by Kelly’s NK Productions in association with Eason.
But it appears the events of the summer of 2023, which took place in an intense political and media spotlight, continue to rankle.
Although it is understood the data access requests to RTÉ are restricted to a particular time period, it is clear they are generating a huge amount of work and substantial costs for the station, and are fraught with danger.
Given that Kelly has acted not just for Tubridy but also for a host of RTÉ’s top names, and was central to the 2023 events, his access request is far from being a sideshow to Tubridy’s.
Neither man has taken legal action against RTÉ, but the data trawl is likely to throw up material that will contribute to their understanding of what went on inside the station during the traumatic summer and autumn of 2023.
As well as matters that might be relevant to potential litigation, the requests have the potential to throw up material that would be embarrassing to the station, or some of its senior executives.
Data, or subject access requests, entitle the person to all of the information held by an organisation relating to the applicant by virtue of content or effect, save for a limited number of exceptions, according to solicitor Fred Logue, of FP Logue.
Even in such areas as content that might affect an organisation’s legal position, that has to be weighed against the applicant’s right of access, he said.
RTÉ has engaged Arthur Cox to oversee the Tubridy and Kelly requests while the broadcaster and agent are using the services of Hayes solicitors.
The use of subject access requests, which have their origin in EU data protection law, is a rapidly growing area of litigation strategy, especially in employment law disputes but also generally.
There was a high-profile instance in the UK in 2023 when politician Nigel Farage, after being told that his account with Coutts bank was being closed for commercial reasons, submitted a data access request to the bank.
As part of its response the bank gave the leader of the Reform UK party a copy of a report drafted by its “reputational risk” committee and the Daily Mail soon had a copy. The disclosure boosted the politician’s claim that the bank had spurned his custom not just for commercial reasons but also because it didn’t like his politics.
As part of the controversy, Dame Alison Rose, the chief executive of Coutt’s owner, NatWest Group, stood down when it emerged she had given a briefing about the matter to a journalist from the BBC.
Farage’s dispute with the bank ended only last month, with a joint statement saying the details of the settlement agreed between the two parties were confidential.
As it continues to process the Tubridy and Kelly access requests, RTÉ has every right to be worried.
