OPINION: Let's be honest, you'd have all taken Tubridy's money and Marty's car!

There’s an uncomfortable truth to the RTÉ pay scandal. 

Ryan Tubridy, the voice and face of a nation, we’ve since found out was paid more than what RTÉ said he was paid from 2017 to 2019 in public declarations by the national broadcaster.

The pay scandal arose after it emerged that RTÉ publicly understated Tubridy’s earnings since 2017 by €345,000 – the headline figure in the whole controversy.

It has been revealed that €225,000 of this relates to Tubridy’s commercial deal with Renault. 

Of that, €75,000 was paid by Renault in 2020, and a further €150,000 was paid by RTÉ (which had underwritten  the payment) in 2021 and 2022 after the car manufacturer pulled out of the deal. 

Auditors Grant Thornton have been asked to look into what happened between 2017 and 2019 regarding the €120,000 paid to Tubridy.

All those figures take us to a nice, clean €345,000.

Even the much-loved GAA commentator Marty Morrisey has come into the firing line. None of the nation’s darlings are safe in this saga. 

Marty recently apologised for what he called an "error in judgement" over an "ad-hoc" arrangement that saw him borrow a - you guessed it - Renault car for several years.

Many have taken the moral high ground on this and it is a huge issue for the State broadcaster. 

A leader in last week’s Nationalist and Tipperary Star in Tipperary, written by Shannon Sweeney, stated: “There is no doubt we need a public broadcaster, and that will have to be funded by both the taxpayer and private business. But there is just no point if you can’t trust that taxpayer money is being used responsibly. 

“Journalists at RTÉ who have suffered pay cuts and reduced resources are rightly devastated by this. 

“Everyone who faces a crisis or scandal promises to regain public trust. But trust isn’t something you drop and pick back up again when the fun money runs out.”

The national broadcaster is in crisis and the talent on inflated salaries with their numerous side deals and benefits are left blinking in the spotlight of public scrutiny. 

And so they should be when you have those who haven’t paid their TV licence fees being taken to court and staff reporting from cafés and remotes that don’t work in a TV station. 

However, the sanctimony is endless from the political sphere and amongst other national media. 

And from certain sectors of the general public too - Twitter being awash with conspiracy theories. 

Yes, there’s plenty to criticise; the obscene payments to the talent, the “free” car for Marty in exchange for appearances at events,  the alleged cover-up and the intention to deceive over the “consultancy fees” paid to Tubridy, the mysterious barter account or accounts, and even the talents’ lavish sponsorship deals on the side, from porridge oats to cars. 

As TV licence fee payers - most of us - we are all entitled to be outraged. 

But what’s the uncomfortable truth you’re wondering? 

Well, it occurred to me, if any of us were in a situation to earn a sum of €345,000, on top of our other earnings, over several years like Tubridy or get the use of a nice, new car like Marty did, you’d all bloody take the money and the car!

Anyone who says they wouldn’t, in my view, are kidding themselves.

You wouldn’t say no because of some sense of solidarity with hard-working colleagues on less pay, or because taking an obscene pay packet from RTÉ, parts of which they have pledged to underwrite, is allegedly a misuse of taxpayers' money. 

There’d be nothing but a cloud of dust through which we could just about make out the backend of the latest Renault car, as €100 notes fly through the air. 

This is TV and radio, this is not an elected representative in the Dáil or Seanad. 

Okay, it's the State broadcaster and it’s publicly funded. But you take what you can get in any job, particularly in broadcasting, and Tubridy did. 

And for many people, you wouldn’t have to be in broadcasting to be comfortable taking it either! 

Not one of you would have done any different I'd wager. 

So take your faux outrage home with you - it’s good old fashioned Irish begrudgery masquerading as superior moral authority - and get off Twitter. Go touch some grass. 

If we could all earn it, we'd all take it. What RTÉ are prepared to pay is Tubridy's concern and both he and his super agent milked them. 

The fact that RTÉ paid, and how they paid it, is an entirely different issue. Sure, Tubridy should have shouted louder when the media reports of his salary were inaccurate. But don't judge him for getting all he could.

For RTÉ as a corporate entity, this is like The Shawshank Redemption, only with more tunnelling through sh*t and no redemption.

Tubridy might have a shot at redemption, maybe not at RTÉ but in the private media sector. 

That being said, given the Renault gigs didn't (and are unlikely to) happen, he should definitely repay the €150,000. 

You should only get paid for the work you do, not the work you promised to do. 

The RTÉ editorial staff have been incredible in their coverage of the scandal, right across radio, TV and web. 

It is testament to how secretive some RTÉ top brass had been, and the culture of World Cup trips and “looking after” clients, that in a building full of hundreds of journalists all of this was kept quiet for so many years. 

Huge changes are surely to come at the very top of the organisation. It must! And for the talent, well the talent will always get what it can! And so would you!