'I'm not worried about Ray stealing the Late Late from me', says Ryan Tubridy

However, he is glad that Ray is no longer his chief competitor in the 9am radio slot.

When asked if he feared that Ray would nab his Friday night chat show Ryan said: "Well, I present the Late Late Show on TV. It's my privilege to do that.

"If Ray wants to do that, he'd probably join a quite significant group of people.

"I'm only interested in the current holder of the job - and that's me," he added.

There has been talk that Ray could take over from Brendan O'Connor on the Saturday Night Show, but Ryan (41) also rubbished those rumours.

"Brendan O'Connor is the presenter of Saturday Night and I haven't heard anything to the contrary on that front," he said.

The next round of the Joint National Listenership Research (JNLR) figures will be released next week but Ryan says his focus is on producing good-quality radio.

"I don't live or die by these things. But we had a very good news day the last day, we are in a very positive frame of mind," he admitted.

"We don't know if it's going to be good or bad but we do feel that we're making good radio.

"It's very satisfying, figures or no figures, that we know the team are happy.

"Then we'll see the figures when they come out, and we'll see what happens," he added.

Speaking during a tour of his 2fm studio yesterday, Ryan said that he hopes that Taoiseach Enda Kenny will come on the Late Late show soon.

"I hope he will finally do the Late Late, but I think it's his prerogative," he said.

"He's had a good 2015 so far, so there are lots of good things he could come on and talk about.

"It doesn't all have to be bad, in fairness.

"I think even his reaction to Leo Varadkar was very amusing and quite a warm reaction. I think it was very becoming," Ryan continued.

"So I think the Irish people would like to see him on the Late Late. So the invitation is open for a respectful interview."

Herald