Ryan Tubridy began his opening statement to the Dáil Committee on Public Accounts with an apology and says he is truly sorry for all that has happened.
He told the Committee that he is appearing before them to do one thing and one thing only: to set the record straight and to call out some untruths.
He says there are 7 material untruths which he would like to address in order to lift the "fog of confusion"
Tubridy also declared that there is zero connection between his departure and what has emerged over the last few weeks
Ryan Tubridy says he has become the face of a "public scandal".
"I signed a contract in good faith. I declared my earnings and paid every cent of tax. My employer has acknowledged that it has engaged in deceptive practices to pay me, practices that were hidden from me.
"The result of this is I have become the face of a national scandal. I have been accused of being complicit, deceitful and dishonest. I think the statement of June 22nd was very unhelpful in this regard. The full truth was concealed."
In relation to the Renault contract Ryan Tubridy's agent Noel Kelly says RTE's subsequent comments on the decision to underwrite the contract is the most shocking revelation of the morning
He told the Committee that RTE has tried to distance themselves from the underwriting of the Renault contract and lay the blame at former Director General Dee Forbes door
Noel Kelly highlighted an email his office received from the then Chief Financial officer Breda O'Keeffe in February 2020.
"In this email, Ms O'Keefe on behalf of RTE states explicitly: 'we can provide you with a side letter to underwrite this fee for the duration of the contract.'
"There is no secret. There was no secret.
"To our surprise, Ms O'Keeffe told the committee last week when she left RTE in March, that there was no support to provide that type of guarantee, and no such guarantee was on offer, but she had written to us making that exact offer a month earlier."
You can watch Ryan Tubridy's speech in full here:
