{"id":457100,"date":"2026-05-19T19:00:08","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T19:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/457100\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T19:00:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T19:00:08","slug":"rte-treatment-of-sean-rocks-pay-had-significant-financial-implications-for-family-says-td-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/457100\/","title":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9 treatment of Se\u00e1n Rocks pay had \u2018significant financial implications\u2019 for family, says TD \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

RT\u00c9<\/a>\u2019s treatment of its former presenter Se\u00e1n Rocks<\/a>\u2019s pay had \u201csignificant financial implications\u201d for his family after his death, Labour Party<\/a> media spokeswoman Marie Sherlock<\/a> has said. <\/p>\n

Rocks, who died last year after a short illness at the age of 64, presented the RT\u00c9 arts and culture programme Arena for 16 years, beginning in 2009. <\/p>\n

Dublin Central<\/a> TD Sherlock told The Irish Times that she has been in contact with Rocks\u2019s widow, Catherine Bailey, for some time. <\/p>\n

She said that when Rocks took over as presenter of Arena he was put on a producer salary with an additional allowance covering off his on-air role. <\/p>\n

His pay arrangement had \u201csignificant implications\u201d for his partner and two young children upon his passing, Sherlock said on Tuesday. <\/p>\n

The Labour TD said that it was her understanding that Rocks had repeatedly tried to resolve the situation and have himself classified as a presenter and RT\u00c9 had refused this, adding that the broadcaster was \u201cwronged, and the amount of eulogies about his contribution to RT\u00c9 and arts programming … and yet behind the scenes that\u2019s how he was treated by RT\u00c9\u201d. <\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for Minister for Media Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> confirmed that he met Bailey on Monday as controversy builds over the classification of workers\u2019 pay at the station. <\/p>\n

It\u2019s understood Bailey raised classification of Rocks\u2019s employment with O\u2019Donovan and told him that it had had implications for her and her family since his death.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Derek Mooney pay controversy compounds image of dysfunction and distrust at RT\u00c9Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Earlier on Tuesday, Sherlock told reporters in Leinster House that recent revelations about the structuring of pay at RT\u00c9 had prompted a \u201cfundamental question as to how RT\u00c9 treats all its staff and whether it treats all its staff fairly\u201d.<\/p>\n

She added: \u201cI suppose, in regards to the case of now-deceased Se\u00e1n Rocks and how his pay was structured \u2013 he was paid as a producer but with a top-up for being a presenter.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI raise that case not just for Se\u00e1n\u2019s sake but for every other worker in there, particularly those who have been forced into bogus-self employment over many years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Arriving at Cabinet on Tuesday morning, O\u2019Donovan told reporters that he had been contacted by a range of people aggrieved with RT\u00c9 in the wake of the broadcaster confirming last week that presenter Derek Mooney was paid enough to feature among the 10 highest-paid presenters every year between 2020 and 2025, according to new figures from the broadcaster. <\/p>\n

Mooney had not been included in the annually published list as he was deemed to be a \u201cproducer\u201d as per the terms of his contract. <\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan said: \u201cThe staff are very aggrieved. I\u2019ve had several off the record conversations with staff members and I\u2019ve had a lot of anonymised correspondence from staff members from the company. Some people feel very aggrieved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve had contact from widows of the organisation who also feel really aggrieved with regard to the categorisation and how people could move from one category to another seamlessly\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of hurt in the organisation because people felt this was the end of it three or four years ago, but it appears it wasn\u2019t,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Asked about Sherlock\u2019s comments, RT\u00c9 provided some general details of the pension and benefit schemes relevant after the death of an employee.<\/p>\n

\u201cRT\u00c9 has a group life assurance policy which pays 2.5 times insured pensionable pay on death in service,\u201d a spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSalary for pension purposes in all RT\u00c9 schemes is basic salary plus pensionable allowances and these would be advised by RT\u00c9 to the pensions administrators.<\/p>\n

\u201cCurrently in RT\u00c9\u2019s DC [defined contribution] and 50\/50 Schemes a spouse\u2019s death-in-service pension is paid based on pensionable salary and potential pensionable service. Children\u2019s pensions are also payable.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccumulated DC funds in both schemes are also payable on death subject to a potential service-related minimum payment of between one and one and a half times salary.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9\u2019s treatment of its former presenter Se\u00e1n Rocks\u2019s pay had \u201csignificant financial implications\u201d for his family after his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457101,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,7038],"class_list":["post-457100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457100","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=457100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457100\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}