Ray D’Arcy contract fine print meant RTÉ didn’t have to pay him €50,000 | Irish Independent
Flor Lynch
Ray D’Arcy contract fine print meant RTÉ didn’t have to pay him €50,000
Broadcaster points to ‘a difficult time’ for radio presenter and backs away from claim of a legal risk from not making payment
The interview was pre-recorded, so devoid of the stress of being live. But the answers given on Prime Time made it a car crash nonetheless.
Rather than calming the situation around the latest scandal at the national broadcaster, RTÉ chairman Terence O’Rourke made matters worse. And his first serious public outing on a crisis left hostages to fortune.
Among the questions the chairman failed to answer adequately was why RTÉ paid €100,000 to two star presenters who were gone off the air.
And now O’Rourke’s suggestion that it was for legal reasons doesn’t stack up.
The payments to Claire Byrne and Ray D’Arcy were in the notes at the bottom of a statement about Derek Mooney’s secret salary, or as RTÉ tried to innocuously spin it: “RTÉ top 10 highest-earning presenters 2025.”
After handing in her cards to move to Newstalk, Byrne finished up on air at the end of last October as station chiefs wanted to kickstart the new RTÉ Radio 1 schedule.
D’Arcy was told at the start of that month that his contract wasn’t being renewed and his show was being scrapped. He chose not to go back on air.
Both were paid up to the end of the year, despite not being on air, with Byrne’s firm getting €47,000 and D’Arcy’s company being paid €50,000.
Going on Prime Time, Mr O’Rourke clearly intimated the presenters would have taken legal action if they had not been paid up to the end of their contracts.
He said: “Well, their contract said, that they, um, were contracted to present until the end of the year and there were different decisions made about when they would stop presenting.
“But, for example, if we had ceased to pay them, I think we would have had some interesting solicitors’ letters and all the rest. So I think it was a wise... the right thing for the organisation to carry out.”
But D’Arcy’s contract had several clauses saying he had no entitlements if he wasn't providing a service, the Irish Independent has learnt.
The watertight contract detailed how “no fee will be payable in respect of any period during which the services are not provided”.
The contract ran for two years, for 2024 and 2025, but “may be terminated by either party by serving four weeks’ written notice on the other”.
According to both D’Arcy and RTÉ, the presenter himself decided not to continue on air.
His circumstances were different to Byrne, who was taken off before the end of the year to allow her replacement, David McCullagh, to take over the morning slot.
When asked about the fine print of D’Arcy’s contract, RTÉ made no mention of any legal risk and indicated the decision to pay him was based on compassionate grounds, rather than contractual.
“While we don’t comment on the detail of individual contracts, during what was a difficult time for Ray D’Arcy, something he has spoken about publicly and which has been widely reported, he had asked to come off air. Taking all the circumstances into account, RTÉ agreed to pay Ray to the end of the year,” an RTÉ spokesperson said.
D’Arcy has spoken about the death of his mother last summer and then being told his radio show was being axed a few months later. As a contractor, he enjoyed none of the normal employment rights.
We had a choice at that stage to treat them, and we think the right and fair thing to do was to pay them
Aside from Mr O’Rourke, at no point has anyone else mentioned a risk of litigation, including RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst when he spoke on the topic.
“In that case, Ray came off air. Effectively, he served out his notice period not on air,” he told the Oireachtas Media Committee a fortnight ago.
D’Arcy was contacted for comment but did not respond.
The decision to pay him to the end of the year was clearly made by RTÉ management and there is no suggestion he applied any pressure.
Mr O’Rourke was contacted for clarity around the basis for his claim there was a legal risk to not paying D’Arcy.
He was also asked if he knew about the clauses in D’Arcy’s contract and if he knew the presenter had asked to come off air. Mr O’Rourke didn’t respond to any of those questions.
“The RTÉ leadership team made a number of business decisions relating to the RTÉ Radio 1 schedule change in 2025. The decisions were discussed and supported by the RTÉ board,” a spokesperson said.
In his interview on Prime Time, Mr O’Rourke claimed the board “questioned the decision and challenged the decision” and he was happy management made the right decision.
“My understanding... the different things. But we had a choice at that stage to treat them, and we think the right and fair thing to do was to pay them,” he said.
Mr O’Rourke also said Byrne and D’Arcy “were available and if anything happened, they would still have been under contract to present”.
“It wasn’t that they were doing nothing, they were available,” he said.