Claire Byrne on leaving RTÉ: It felt like the organisation was wagging its finger at me, saying ‘you’ve been a bad person – you need to have a pay cap to stop your gallop’

As her Newstalk début looms, the presenter tells Niamh Horan why she left the state broadcaster, a place she reckons has lost its backbone

Claire Byrne pictured in the intercontinental Hotel, Dublin. Photo: Gerry Mooney

Claire Byrne knows the pressure is on. It’s Wednesday afternoon and the broadcaster is enjoying the final days of a three-month break from the airwaves before she makes the move to her new show on Newstalk.

“I need to hit the ground running,” she says as we meet over coffee in Dublin’s Intercontinental Hotel.