'TUBRIDY SNATCHED DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY...'

Star's actions torpedoed' deal | Fate is sealed over statement | New concern for court action

- SANDRA MALLON

RYAN Tubridy has been told he snatched "defeat from the jaws of victory" as he was ditched from his RTE Radio 1 show just as he had negotiated a deal to return.

Tubs was due to make a comeback next month on a reduced annual salary of €170,000.

That was before he angered RTE director general Kevin Bakhurst by releasing a statement on Wednesday in relation to a report into his underdeclared salary.

RTE chiefs last night confirmed that Tubridy's fate was sealed after he failed to sufficiently clarify what he meant in this statement which derailed talks to get him back on air.

It comes as RTE are now braced for possible legal action from the "shocked and disappointed" Tubridy.

Station boss Bakhurst says he also now fears that Tubridy will not repay the €150,000 connected to a controversial Renault deal.

He said that repayment might not happen given that it was linked to his return which is now off the table.

Mr Bakhurst said: "I don't expect him to repay it. I made it clear to him throughout that I felt, morally, it was the right thing to repay it.

"He had agreed as part of returning to RTE that he would repay it," he said, adding that that now may "change".

It has now emerged that Tubridy's return was jettisoned after he was asked to clarify on Wednesday evening what he meant in his public statement, but his response wasn't "satisfactory" to Mr Bakhurst.

In his statement on Wednesday, father-of-two Tubridy welcomed the second Grant Thornton report.

But he added: "It is also clear that my actual income from RTE in 2020 and 2021 matches what was originally published as my earnings for those years and RTE has not yet published its top 10 earner details for 2022"

CLARIFICATION

The statement irked Mr Bakhurst who asked for clarification on what he meant by that.