‘We feel like fools’: unhappy RTÉ staff demand showdown with management over pay scandal | Irish Independent
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Kevin Bakhurst to face grilling at Oireachtas Media Committee this week
Angry RTE staff looking for answers after latest pay controversy at the national broadcaster
RTÉ’s fresh payments scandal has caused “ructions” among staff, who are demanding a meeting with management over how some six-figure salaries have been calculated.
A long-awaited bill is also going to Cabinet on Tuesday to bring RTÉ’s finances under the control of the Comptroller and Auditor General, the state spending watchdog.
This move had been signalled in 2024 by then media minister Catherine Martin to ensure greater financial oversight and accountability after the Ryan Tubridy payments scandal. It has yet to become law.
Media Minister Patrick O’Donovan will also raise transparency issues around the pay of presenters and producers when he meets the chair of RTÉ’s board, Trevor O’Rourke, and RTÉ’s director general, Kevin Bakhurst, on Tuesday.
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The chair of the Oireachtas media committee, Alan Kelly, has also questioned whether RTÉ’s annual list of top earners should be broadened to include all RTÉ staff.
Adrian Lynch, RTÉ’s deputy director general, will appear alongside Mr Bakhurst on Wednesday, when both will be questioned by TDs at the media committee.
Disclosures come three years after the Ryan Tubridy scandal
Multiple sources working in television and radio said RTÉ staff would be seeking meetings with the broadcaster’s leadership team to clarify confusion over the “high earners” list and how it is calculated.
The latest controversy erupted when the broadcaster disclosed last week that it had excluded Derek Mooney, presenter of Radio 1’s wildlife show, Mooney Goes Wild, from its annual list of 10 best-paid presenters.
RTÉ said Mr Mooney was excluded because, since 2020, his contract has described him as an executive producer. After reviewing how it classified “presenters”, RTÉ said it decided to include him on the high earners list for last year and 2024.
As a result, Mr Mooney, who is best known for presenting nature programmes on television and radio, ranked as the seventh highest earner last year on a salary of €202,264, and eighth in 2024 on a salary of €197,151.
The disclosures come almost three years after the scandal over Ryan Tubridy’s under-declared pay, and after RTÉ executives faced a series of grillings by the Public Accounts Committee and Arts Committee.
Numerous sources in RTÉ said the latest controversy raises fresh staff concerns about equity and transparency of pay. One source said serious questions will be asked of management in the coming weeks.
“We feel like fools,” a source said. “We feel like we have been lied to again and again and again. For presenters who have ongoing discussions about salaries, some feel they have been lied to for years.
“You only have to look at the list of top 10 highest presenters to see the problem. Why is Darragh Moloney, a sports presenter, on that list when Marty Morrissey [also a sports presenter] isn’t? Why is one paid that amount and the other isn’t?
“What about correspondents? Why is George Lee on the list of top earners as a correspondent when others news correspondent aren’t?”
Mr Lee, RTÉ’s environment correspondent, earned €194,406 last year.
Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh. Photo: Gerry Mooney
When asked about Mr Lee’s salary, RTÉ directed the Sunday Independent to its salary guide, which states that entry pay for a correspondent is €69,034 and the highest pay is €94,108.
“His earnings listed reflect many years of evolving journalistic and presenter duties across radio and television,” said a spokesperson.
An RTÉ source asked: “Why is it that a presenter like Bláthnaid Ní Chofaigh, who started off in RTÉ with Derek Mooney on Echo Island, is not on the list of highest paid presenters and Derek is? None of it makes sense.”
Another source questioned whether decisions on pay were “completely subjective”.
“I know that there are both presenters and producers who will be calling for one-on-one meetings with Kevin Bakhurst on the back of all of this,” they said.
“It’s difficult to comprehend all the deals that were done by previous management over the years. And now we are asking what else is going on.”
A third RTÉ insider said: “I know staff presenters get allowances for extra work when they land big shows. Do some people get more than others?”
How did this not come out in 2023? How was it not seen?
Another staff member said the current issue can be traced back to the previous leadership: “The ghost of [former director general] Dee Forbes continues to haunt the corridors of RTÉ.”
At the Oireachtas Media Committee on Wednesday, Alan Kelly will chair the questioning of RTÉ’s leadership team over the latest controversy.
Mr Kelly said questions remained over who decided to review the terms of inclusion in the top 10 earners list, what prompted the review, and why this revelation was only coming out now. “Are there any other instances where there is a recategorisation between a producer and a presenter?” he asked.
“In 2023, the whole country was gripped for weeks in relation to the Oireachtas hearings on RTÉ. How did this not come out then? How was it not seen?”
Whether it would be better to publish a list of all top earners at the station is a question that has to be asked, he said.
“Is it a case where they need to look at the totality from the [director general] down, rather just the top earning presenters alone?” he asked.
“From a management point of view, we need to get some comfort that there are not other issues here now.”
RTÉ executives told an Oireachtas committee in 2023 that publication of all salaries above €100,000 could be considered as part of a culture review.