RTÉ reiterates sadness at 'sudden loss'

REACTION:RTÉ RESPONDED to the inquest findings by again expressing sadness at the "sudden loss" of Gerry Ryan earlier this year.

In a two-line statement, the State broadcaster extended its sympathies to Ryan’s wife, Morah, and their children, and to his partner Melanie Verwoerd.

A senior source at the station said last night that colleagues had no indication of Ryan’s health issues before his death.

The 2fm presenter was under no pressure to work if he was unwell and would have been urged to take time off if he had alerted staff to the stress he was experiencing, the source said.

As a contracted presenter paid through his own company rather than a member of staff, Ryan was not entitled to sick leave. The normal duty of care of an employer towards its staff would not have applied in the case of such contractors, the source said, though help would have been available if there had been an awareness of his problems.

Most of RTÉ’s top-paid presenters work as contractors for a specified number of days per year. Their fee is reduced commensurately according to the numbers of days worked under the required minimum.

Ryan had missed three days in the first four months of 2010 but this wasn’t seen as unusual or exceptional, according to the source. Any time lost early on could be made up later in the year.

“His attendance record was regarded as excellent,” the senior source said.

Ryan had received a note on the rule applying to absences but this was a standard reminder that went out to all contracted staff, according to the source.

There was an awareness in RTÉ that Ryan was overweight and that he “lived well”, he continued, “but there was no sense of him having an acute health issue”.

Neither was there any knowledge of drug use, he added.

In August of this year, the director of RTÉ Radio Clare Duignan said Ryan did not appear to be under a lot of stress in the weeks before his death.

Ms Duignan told The Irish Timesin an interview at the time: "I would not have said he was stressed about work and I would have been the person who he dealt with on a lot of these matters". She said she had been "very surprised" by comments that Marian Finucane made on her radio show the day after Ryan was found dead in his apartment on April 30th.

Finucane told listeners Ryan had been “really, really very stressed. He was stressed about RTÉ and other things in his life” when she had dinner with him on the Tuesday before he died.

Ms Duignan responded in the August interview: “I’m not saying that the conversations that Marian seemed to base that on didn’t take place, but I have had conversations with family and close friends and I have not had a sense that was the case.”

Ms Duignan said she challenged Ryan about his failure to take a 10 per cent pay cut and warned him that he was in danger of losing touch with his listeners.

"We would have had plenty of words and exchanges about that, whether that caused deep profound stress or not, I don't know," she said in an interview with The Irish Times.

However, she said she also had many similar “challenging conversations” with other presenters.

She said she and head of 2fm John McMahon had a conversation about Ryan’s health just 20 minutes before she found out he was dead. They had discussed ways of trying to persuade him to live a healthier lifestyle. “He was a man in his 50s; he liked to eat and drink and socialise. He was not a gym bunny and you worry about somebody like that especially when they are in a highly pressurised job.”

She said Ryan missed very few days and never appeared to be the worse for wear or hungover.

“I certainly never saw Gerry in any situation where drink had interfered with his work to the tiny scintilla,” she explained in the August interview.