![\"Minister](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/bakhurst-says-rte-has-paid-the-price-of-transparency-after-payment-revelations.jpg\")
Minister for Communications Patrick O\u2019Donovan is to meet with RT\u00c9 officials (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\nRT\u00c9 director-general Kevin Bakhurst has said that RT\u00c9 has \u201cpaid a price for transparency\u201d in response to the recent top-paid presenter controversies.<\/p>\n
Bakhurst, who was speaking after a meeting with the Communications Minister on Tuesday afternoon, said the reaction to the revelations was \u201cnot an incentive to be more transparent\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said they demonstrated the timetable of events to Minister Patrick O\u2019Donovan between the issue being raised, verifying it, taking legal advice, and informing the department before the issue was leaked.<\/p>\n
The meeting with RT\u00c9 bosses was called after it was revealed that Derek Mooney has been at least its ninth highest-paid presenter since 2020 \u2013 but had not featured in annual lists as he was classified as a producer.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have paid a price for that transparency, which is the controversy in the last few days, and that\u2019s disappointing for me, because I do want to drive transparency,\u201d he told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve said that all along, and if we pay that kind of price when we discover something we want to put right and put it in the public domain, it\u2019s not an incentive to be more transparent.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said the departure of Mari Hurley as RT\u00c9 chief financial officer after 18 months in the role was not linked to the recent presenter payment revelations.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, not at all, she went to a really good job in the private sector,\u201d he said after a meeting at the Department of Communications.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis came to the leadership team and to the board as part of the annual accounts, and the CFO said that she uncovered this issue, so all of us couldn\u2019t sign off on the top 10 until it was properly done, as I just described.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it was just part of the normal process of the annual report and the annual financial report. They had to see through the checks and then went through the audit and risk committee and through the remuneration committee and through the whole board.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bakhurst, deputy director-general Adrian Lynch, and board chairman Terence O\u2019Rourke arrived together for the meeting with Minister Patrick O\u2019Donovan and his officials in Dublin on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Donovan also said he wanted to \u201cflesh out\u201d why RT\u00c9 paid Claire Byrne and Ray D\u2019Arcy almost \u20ac100,000 after they left Radio One but were still in contract.<\/p>\n
The meeting comes on the same day the minister secured Government approval to put RT\u00c9 under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the meeting, O\u2019Donovan said he did not \u201caccept that at all\u201d that RT\u00c9 were paying for being transparent.<\/p>\n
\u201cThree years ago, when they ran into the difficulties that are all very well enunciated at this stage, the government didn\u2019t punish them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government stood by the organisation to make sure that it was able to fulfil its obligations and duties as laid down in statute.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think that anybody, certainly any of my colleagues sitting around the Cabinet table, have been anything other than supportive of the independence of a public service broadcaster like RT\u00c9.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Donovan said the RT\u00c9 executives went through the timeframe of discovering the the revelations and discussing the presenter payment list with Derek Mooney himself.<\/p>\n
He said he was satisfied with what he was told by RT\u00c9 during the meeting on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI take them at their word that this is what they have said that they\u2019re aware of, they don\u2019t have any information on anything else, and I take them at their word on that.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said a bill brought to Cabinet on Tuesda would \u201cstrengthen the legislative underpinning\u201d for governance at RT\u00c9 and TG4.<\/p>\n
Minister for Communications Patrick O\u2019Donovan is to meet with RT\u00c9 officials (Brian Lawless\/PA)<\/p>\n
Earlier, T\u00e1naiste Simon Harris criticised an apparent \u201cupstairs-downstairs\u201d situation at the broadcaster.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of hard work and decent people in RT\u00c9 who will feel let down by this latest set of revelations.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI don\u2019t want to push to personalise it to anyone, because I think that serves no purpose, but it\u2019s beginning to look like there\u2019s a little bit of an upstairs-downstairs situation going on in RT\u00c9, that certain producers can be over here, and that\u2019s not fair. It\u2019s not fair in any organisation.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, there\u2019s a fairness issue here, there\u2019s a transparency issue here, and then there\u2019s just an accuracy issue here \u2013 fairness, transparency and accuracy. And we need all three of them to ensure we don\u2019t have Groundhog Day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Harris said a lack of transparency was not acceptable to the Irish public as he criticised a \u201cdrip-feed\u201d of information.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cNone of this \u2018will there be another revelation?\u2019, no salacious detail \u2013 we just need facts, information and transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin said bringing RT\u00c9 under the aegis of the Comptroller and Auditor General would create \u201ca more structured framework for accountability\u201d.<\/p>\n
He said the revelations regarding Mr Mooney had created concerns, as he stressed it was \u201cessential\u201d to maintain confidence in the public service broadcaster.<\/p>\n
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