RTÉ’s top earners: Tubridy, Duffy and Byrne highest paid in 2022

Former Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy was paid €515,000 in 2022, the most of RTÉ's top earners, newly published figures show.

Figures of RTÉ’s top 10 highest earners shows Joe Duffy was the second highest paid individual in the organisation, being paid €351,000 in 2022. Claire Byrne was listed third in the figures, with her pay dropping from €350,000 in 2021 to €320,833 in 2022. Prime Time presenter Miriam O’Callaghan was the fourth highest paid at the broadcaster, with her annual pay remaining at €263,500.

The figures, published on Monday by RTÉ, show Ray Darcy was paid €250,000 in 2022, a drop on the €305,000 he was paid as a contractor in 2021, seeing him fall from fourth to fifth in the table of high earners. Brendan O’Connor was paid €245,004 in 2022, making him the sixth highest paid earner, who was also paid as a contractor.

Bryan Dobson, the veteran broadcaster who recently announced he would retire from RTÉ at the end of April after nearly four decades, was the highest paid employee, earning €209,681 in 2022. He was followed by Mary Wilson (€197, 643), sports presenter Darragh Maloney (€184, 501), and environment correspondent George Lee (€179, 821).

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Revelations that RTÉ had previously made €225,000 in payments to Mr Tubridy, which it did not disclose in its annual table of top earners and their earnings, sparked the major scandal that has rocked the broadcaster since last summer. Negotiations between Mr Tubridy and RTÉ over a new contract later broke down, leading him to leave the broadcaster and later take up a job with Virgin Radio in the UK.

In a statement on Monday, RTÉ said the total cost of payments to its top 10 highest earners in 2022 represented less than 1 per cent of the broadcaster’s operating costs.

Speaking on her radio show on Monday, Claire Byrne said she wished to clarify that she had been paid €350,000 for doing her morning radio show and her Claire Byrne Live TV show but the latter ceased broadcasting in May 2022. She said her fee subsequently dropped to €280,000 and it currently remained at this level.

Adrian Lynch, RTÉ deputy director general, said the organisation had committed that going forward no one would earn more than the director general Kevin Bakhurst, which would mean a basic salary cap of €250,000.

It is expected reductions in the pay of presenters currently earning above that cap will take place during future negotiations when contracts are due for renewal.

RTÉ has said in future it plans to publish the list of its top ten earners along with its annual report, meaning the top earner figures covering 2023 will be published later this year.

Mr Lynch said the broadcaster’s 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”.

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