{"id":111198,"date":"2025-10-29T23:39:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T23:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/111198\/"},"modified":"2025-10-29T23:39:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T23:39:09","slug":"who-were-rtes-highest-earners-in-2024-top-10-list-a-mix-of-executives-and-presenters-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/111198\/","title":{"rendered":"Who were RT\u00c9\u2019s highest earners in 2024? Top-10 list a mix of executives and presenters \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The new list of top 10 earners in RT\u00c9 is split between presenters and executives, following the introduction of salary caps at the national broadcaster.<\/p>\n

Joe Duffy was RT\u00c9\u2019s highest-paid presenter in 2024, earning \u20ac351,000, according to figures from RT\u00c9\u2019s 2024 Annual Report. <\/p>\n

Duffy, who retired in June<\/a> after 37 years at the State broadcaster, became the highest-paid presenter after the departure of Ryan Tubridy at the height of the payments controversy<\/a> in 2023.<\/p>\n

Claire Byrne was the second highest paid presenter last year, earning \u20ac280,000. In August, Byrne announced she was leaving RT\u00c9 to take up a new role at Newstalk<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"ClaireClaire Byrne was RT\u00c9’s second highest-paid presenter last year, earning \u20ac280,000. Photograph: Conor McCabe <\/p>\n

RT\u00c9\u2019s top 10 overall highest earners for 2024 are as follows:<\/p>\n

Presenter Joe Duffy: \u20ac351,000Director general Kevin Bakhurst: \u20ac339,954Deputy director general Adrian Lynch: \u20ac292,285Director of operations, technology and transformation Richard Waghorn: \u20ac287,120Managing director of news & current affairs Deirdre McCarthy: \u20ac281,197Presenter Claire Byrne: \u20ac280,000Director of human resources Eimear Cusack: \u20ac274,694Presenter Patrick Kielty: \u20ac257,657Presenter Miriam O\u2019Callaghan: \u20ac246,708Presenter Brendan O\u2019Connor: \u20ac244,099\"RTÉRT\u00c9 director general Kevin Bakhurst. Photograph: Niall Carson\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

The figures for management include salaries plus separate pension contributions and allowances. In 2023, RT\u00c9 director general Kevin Bakhurst<\/a> announced that no one at the broadcaster would earn more than his salary of \u20ac250,000.<\/p>\n

The top 10 highest-paid presenters for 2024 are as follows: <\/p>\n

Joe Duffy: \u20ac351,000 (2024); \u20ac351,000 (2023)Claire Byrne: \u20ac280,000 (2024); \u20ac280,000 (2023)Patrick Kielty: \u20ac257,657 (2024)Miriam O\u2019Callaghan: \u20ac246,708 (2024); \u20ac263,500 (2023)Brendan O\u2019Connor: \u20ac244,099 (2024); \u20ac245,004 (2023)Ray D\u2019Arcy: \u20ac220,409 (2024); \u20ac250,000 (2023)Mary Wilson: \u20ac209,545 (2024); \u20ac199,194 (2023)D\u00e1ith\u00ed \u00d3 S\u00e9: \u20ac196,885 (2024)George Lee: \u20ac195,939 (2024); \u20ac185,674 (2023)Darragh Maloney: \u20ac194,902 (2024); \u20ac186,650 (2023)<\/p>\n

Ray D\u2019Arcy, one of the broadcaster\u2019s highest paid individuals in recent years, left RT\u00c9 earlier this month after his contract was not renewed. <\/p>\n

\"FormerFormer RT\u00c9 presenter Ray D’Arcy earned \u20ac220,409 in 2024. Photograph: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin <\/p>\n

Mr D\u2019Arcy told The Irish Times he was \u201ccompletely blindsided\u201d<\/a> by RT\u00c9\u2019s decision to not renew his contract, claiming he was asked by the national broadcaster to not tell his team or listeners about the development.<\/p>\n

Figures from the annual report, approved by Cabinet on Wednesday<\/a>, show RT\u00c9 received about \u20ac222 million in support from the State and licence fee income in 2024, along with commercial revenues of about \u20ac160 million.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Late Late Show host Patrick Kielty earned \u20ac257,657 from RT\u00c9 in 2024. <\/p>\n

RT\u00c9\u2019s revenue declined due to a significant drop in income from the television licence fee in recent years.<\/p>\n

State funding for RT\u00c9 rose by \u20ac29 million last year but Minister for Communications Patrick O\u2019Donovan has warned the station that Government support \u201cis not bottomless\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The new list of top 10 earners in RT\u00c9 is split between presenters and executives, following the introduction…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":111199,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,31212,67461],"class_list":{"0":"post-111198","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-irish-presidential-election-pa2025","12":"tag-wparota"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111198\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}