The latest embarrassment for the national broadcaster came about because it did not include separate producer fees paid to presenter Derek Mooney when calculating the pay of its top 10 highest earners in previous years, from 2020 to 2024.<\/p>\n
It means the Mooney Goes Wild presenter should have featured in the 2024 top 10 list, at No 8 on \u20ac197,151. Last year he was at No.7, being paid \u20ac202,264.<\/p>\n
Claire Byrne, who left RT\u00c9 in 2025, was paid \u20ac280,000 by the broadcaster last year, followed by Patrick Kielty on \u20ac266,323 and Miriam O’Callaghan on \u20ac244,797.<\/p>\n
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Derek Mooney. Photo: Mark Condren<\/p>\n
News in 90 seconds – Thursday, May 14<\/p>\n
The development is hugely embarrassing in the wake of the separate Ryan Tubridy payments scandal.<\/p>\n
In a statement this evening, RT\u00c9 said: \u201cIn line with the implementation of the Government\u2019s Expert Advisory Committee\u2019s recommendations, RT\u00c9 has reconsidered what constitutes a \u201cpresenter\u201d for the purposes of compiling the Top Ten Table for 2025. RT\u00c9 has made the decision to consider all personnel holding dual roles (such as producer-presenter, or editor-presenter etc) for inclusion in RT\u00c9’s top 10 highest-earning presenters for 2025.<\/p>\n
![\"RT\u00c9's](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/88b8fc3f-2ea3-4179-9e2b-8bc3b46e32d4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
RT\u00c9’s top ten earners in 2025<\/p>\n
“RT\u00c9\u2019s reconsideration has led to the inclusion of Derek Mooney in the list. He currently undertakes some presenting duties as part of his dual role as producer\/presenter and, as such, is included in the top ten table.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor clarity, in 2020 (and up to and including 2024) Derek was designated by RT\u00c9 as a producer, and not as a presenter, in line with his contract of employment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Terence O\u2019Rourke, chair of the board of RT\u00c9, said: \u201cThe board supports the ongoing commitment by RT\u00c9 to transparency, as evidenced in today\u2019s announcement. We acknowledge the scrutiny brought by RT\u00c9 in preparing RT\u00c9\u2019s 2025 annual report and fully support the decision to review the previous categorisations of RT\u00c9\u2019s top ten highest-paid presenters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Director-general Kevin Bakhurst said: \u201cIn keeping with RT\u00c9’s commitment to increased transparency, we are today confirming – and publishing – our decision to include all those presenters who are in dual roles in the annual top ten presenters. As well as publishing the list for 2025, we are also re-presenting the top 10 list for 2024 for consistency and comparison purposes. The list also confirms the continued application of the RT\u00c9 pay cap for all RT\u00c9 employees at the level of pay of the director-general.\u201d<\/p>\n
Further down in the 2025 list of top ten earners revealed today were at No.4 Brendan O\u2019Connor on \u20ac239,988, followed by Ray D\u2019Arcy, who has now departed RT\u00c9, on \u20ac219,992, David McCullagh on \u20ac206,393, Darragh Maloney in eighth on \u20ac197,840, George Lee on \u20ac194,406, and D\u00e1ith\u00ed \u00d3 S\u00e9 in 10th place on \u20ac192,809.<\/p>\n
Kielty, RT\u00c9\u2019s second-highest earner last year wrapped up his third season presenting The Late Late Show two weeks ago but a deal for him to return has yet to be done.<\/p>\n
The DG\u2019s salary has a knock-on effect because he has stipulated that nobody else in Montrose can earn more than him, including the stars. Mr Bakhurst is due to get a pay rise of \u20ac20,000, taking him to \u20ac270,000, which would allow more room for manoeuvre for Kielty. It is believed that his return to hosting duties is the most likely outcome.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Thursday, the D\u00e1il Public Accounts Committee announced it would be turning its attentions to RT\u00c9’s finances again.<\/p>\n
PAC’s interest was piqued by 41 RT\u00c9 staffers travelling to Prague for the World Cup qualifier between Ireland and Czechia.<\/p>\n
That level of largesse seemed at odds with the pleas of poverty coming from RT\u00c9 that resulted in a \u20ac725m bailout over three years.<\/p>\n
Now the RT\u00c9 top brass can expect another batch of questions about its accounting practice.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The latest embarrassment for the national broadcaster came about because it did not include separate producer fees paid…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,3774,61,60,6085],"class_list":["post-449063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-fionnan-sheahan","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-rte"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449063","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=449063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}