The former Radio 1 presenter Ray D’Arcy has said a senior manager at RTÉ agreed with him that the broadcaster had been “brutal” in the way it treated him.
He was speaking to The Irish Times as he rejected claims by RTÉ’s head of audio that he had been given advance notice that he was being dropped by the broadcaster.
D’Arcy said he was “completely blindsided” by RTÉ’s decision to not renew his contract, claiming he was asked by the national broadcaster to not tell his team or listeners about the development.
In an interview with The Irish Times, RTÉ’s director of audio, Patricia Monahan, said D’Arcy was given three months’ notice that his contract would not be renewed after it expired on December 31st.
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Monahan said all presenters were warned that no contract was guaranteed to be renewed when she took up the role last year. However, D’Arcy disputes this, saying there was “no forewarning”.
In a statement, the presenter said he met Monahan on September 29th to discuss his contract.
“I was told it was not going to be renewed. I was completely blindsided. There had been no forewarning.”
D’Arcy said he was “then requested by RTÉ to remain on air, while not telling either the team or the listeners. This was unsustainable as it placed me in a position where I was expected to be untruthful to the team and the listeners.”
D’Arcy said he had a conversation with a senior manager who was asked if they “thought how I had been treated was brutal”. The manager’s response was “Yes”, D’Arcy recalled.
D’Arcy said he and Monahan agreed he would leave RTÉ straight after his show on Friday, October 10th.
“This would allow Patricia Monahan to tell the radio team, who had been kept in the dark up until then, what was happening. There was a leak to the press on the morning of Thursday, October 9th, so I made the decision not to go on air that afternoon,” D’Arcy said.
Asked about D’Arcy’s statement, RTÉ responded on Friday to say “Ray was aware for some time, in the context of both his upcoming contract negotiation but also in context of changes coming to RTÉ Radio 1 – that nothing was guaranteed post the end of his current contract”.
It said: “When Ray was initially given the news, RTÉ gave Ray the opportunity to take some time off if required. It was Ray’s decision to come off air on Thursday, October 8th and for RTÉ to communicate to his team and listeners after he left RTÉ. RTÉ was happy to support his decision.”
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D’Arcy’s account of what happened is at odds with Monahan’s version of events. She said management had a number of conversations with D’Arcy about his future at Radio 1.
“He had asked that, whatever the decision, we communicated in good time. So we communicated it three months out from the end of his contract.”
Monahan said RTÉ was “open to talking about other possibilities with Ray but he didn’t want to pursue that conversation, and that’s fair enough”.
