RTÉ has been at the centre of controversy since it was revealed that Ryan Tubridy’s earnings were publicly understated by €345,000 over the last six years.
The issue was identified during a routine audit of RTÉ’s 2022 accounts, prompting an independent review of the matter.
Last week, the RTÉ Board issued an apology over the error, and later Ryan also apologised for not questioning RTÉ over his published earnings.
The scandal resulted in the suspension of RTÉ’s Director General Dee Forbes, who has since resigned from her role.
On Tuesday, RTÉ released a lengthy statement addressing the misstating of payments to Ryan from 2020 to 2022.
The statement claimed that no member of the RTÉ Executive Board, other than the Director General, had all the necessary information in order to understand that the publicly declared figures for Ryan Tubridy could have been wrong.
The statement did not explain the under-reporting of his pay between 2017 and 2019 as it is the subject of a separate review.
Since the scandal broke, Minister Catherine Martin has ordered a full review of RTÉ’s governance and culture.
The review will assess whether RTÉ’s governance framework is fit for purpose, and will review its approach to financial management, the workplace culture in RTÉ, and relations between senior management and staff.
The earnings of RTÉ’s top presenters will also be subject to an external review to see if their reported salaries are actually correct.
After Ryan, the highest earners are Joe Duffy, Claire Byrne, Ray D’Arcy and Miriam O’Callaghan.
All four of the top broadcasters have addressed the scandal over the past number of days, with Claire, Joe, Miriam and Ray all disclosing their salaries.
Brendan O’Connor, Aine Lawlor, Bryan Dobson, Mary Wilson, and George Lee have also issued statements saying their publicly stated earnings from RTÉ are correct.
Amid the ongoing tension at Montrose, Goss.ie has taken a look back at the published fees for RTÉ’s highest-paid presenters for 2020 and 2021 – which was released back in February.
During this period, RTÉ was focused on achieving cost savings due to the wider financial circumstances of the organisation and the commitment given by RTÉ in November 2019 to, among a range of measures, reduce the fees paid to RTÉ’s top 10 most highly paid, on air presenters by 15%.
At the time, the figures appeared to confirm that RTÉ reduced total fees paid to its highest-paid presenters by more than 15% in both 2020 and 2021.
Ryan Tubridy topped the list with earnings of just over €900k between 2020 and 2021.
According to the figures, the Late Late Show host was paid €466,250 in 2020, and €440,000 in 2021, which appeared to represent an 11% reduction on his 2019 earnings.
We now know these figures were incorrect, as Ryan actually earned €522,500 in 2020, and €515,000 in 2021 – according to RTÉ’s recently corrected figures.
Joe Duffy was named the second highest-paid presenter with a salary of €351,000 in 2021.
Earlier this week, the broadcaster got candid with his listeners, as he disclosed that his RTÉ pay of €351,000 is composed of €300k for radio, and €51k for TV projects.
Joe said: “I’ve been never been offered, never rejected, never received, never been involved in any outside… the figures that are on my contract are the exact figures I receive.”
Claire Byrne landed in third place, as she earned a whopping €350k in 2021. This is €100,000 more than what she earned in 2019.
On Monday, Claire confirmed that all her published earnings are correct, and revealed that her RTÉ salary is now €280k, as she no longer presents Claire Byrne Live on RTÉ One.
“I’ve never sought, been offered, or discussed any kind of commercial or side deal. No other payment exists, or has ever existed beyond my published fee,” she said.
Ray D’Arcy was fourth on the list with an annual wage of €305,000 for 2020 and 2021, which is €145k less than what he earned in 2019.
Earlier this week, Ray also confirmed these figures are correct, and revealed his salary has since decreased to €250k.
Addressing the ongoing payment scandal, the broadcaster said: “On a human level I feel for the people involved but also share the feelings of anger and disappointment of many people around the country and in RTÉ.”
“All of my salary figures to date have been reported correctly. When asked, I agreed to take a more than 15% cut in 2019. My current salary is €250,000.”
Miriam O’Callaghan was named the fifth highest-paid presenter with an annual salary of €263,500 in 2021. This was €56,500 less than the €320k she earned in 2019.
On Monday, the broadcaster wrote on Twitter: “For the purpose of transparency, honesty and clarity, I want to put on the record that my most recently published fee from RTÉ – 263,500 euro – is correct, as are the published fees for previous years.”
“I have never received additional payments from RTÉ that were not publicly declared.”
Sixth on the list was Brendan O’Connor, who saw his pay increase to €245,004 in 2021, compared to the €220k he took home in 2019.
The RTÉ Radio 1 host has also confirmed these figures are correct, alongside fellow top earners Aine Lawlor, Bryan Dobson, Mary Wilson, and George Lee.
When RTÉ published these fees back in February, Director General Dee Forbes said at the time: “Today we are publishing the fees paid to RTÉ’s highest-paid presenters for 2020 and 2021, which confirms a total reduction of more than 15%.”
“Our presenters play an important role in RTÉ’s provision of vital news, information and entertainment to audiences right across the country and enable us to generate commercial revenue which is essential to fund RTÉ’s public services.”
“We are aware that the fees of high-profile presenters attract considerable public interest. Over the past 15 years RTÉ has reduced these fees by c. 40%. We continue to keep them under review.”
The published fees of RTÉ’s highest-paid presenters for 2017, 2018 and 2019 can also be found here.
