Former Late Late host Ryan Tubridy and his agent Noel Kelly have made a written offer to “fully cooperate and assist with” the Oireachtas Committee’s inquiries into the non-disclosure of payments at RTÉ.
The letter is signed by Joe O’Malley, Managing Partner at Hayes solicitors, speaking on behalf of Tubridy and Kelly. The letter reads:
“Mr. Tubridy an Mr. Kelly wish to fully cooperate and assist with your Committee’s investigations. They believe that they have important information that will assist the committee in its examination of these issues and clarify a number of matters that have arisen.”
The letter continues that Tubridy and Kelly wish to “set out their position on these matters” before questioning from the Committee. They will prepare a booklet of relevant documents to be shared with the Committee in advance of the meeting.
It is currently unclear if their appearance before the Oireachtas will be a public or private session of the committee.
This news follows RTÉ making the Oireachtais aware of two barter accounts in addition to the account that the committee were previously made of, which contradicts RTÉ's Chief Financial Officer Richard Collins’ statement last week that there was only one barter account.
€1.6 million was spent on client entertainment and corporate hospitality over a 10 year period through these three barter accounts.