{"id":457355,"date":"2026-05-19T22:15:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:15:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/457355\/"},"modified":"2026-05-19T22:15:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-19T22:15:09","slug":"rte-dg-defends-extra-payments-to-patrick-kielty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/457355\/","title":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9 DG defends extra payments to Patrick Kielty"},"content":{"rendered":"

RT\u00c9’s Director General Kevin Bakhurst has said he would “love” to keep Patrick Kielty as the host of The Late Late Show as he defended extra payments to the star.<\/p>\n

The presenter, who recently came to the end of a contract to host The Late Late Show, was paid an additional \u20ac23,980 across 2024 and 2025, as he presented additional programmes beyond his standard contract.<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 and Mr Kielty had said his pay was \u20ac250,000.<\/p>\n

However, he was paid \u20ac266,323 in 2025 and \u20ac257,657 in 2024.<\/p>\n

The national broadcaster said this was because it “required” Patrick Kielty to present “some additional programmes beyond his standard contract”.<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 ‘paid a price for transparency’, says Director General<\/a><\/p>\n

When asked on Tuesday why RT\u00c9 had not been able to calculate how many programmes it would require Patrick Kielty to host, Kevin Bakhurst said: “The 250,000 was for the run of The Late Late, and then there was some exceptional ones like the Christmas programme, which we didn’t decide at the beginning. <\/p>\n

“But there was something in his initial contract three years ago, which was if you did an extra programme, then you’d be paid for that programme.”<\/p>\n

Kevin Bakhurst has previously said no-one at RT\u00c9 should earn more than he does.<\/p>\n

He has a basic salary of \u20ac250,000 and is entitled to a car allowance of \u20ac25,000 and a pension contribution of \u20ac62,500.<\/p>\n

He is also reportedly in line for a potential pay rise of \u20ac20,000.<\/p>\n

The Director General said there had been “real downward pressure on presenter salaries”, with significant declines in the overall pay in the top 10 – with few near the ceiling of his own pay.<\/p>\n

He said there had been “very tight control on it”.<\/p>\n

Asked how he could say this when Patrick Kielty was paid for additional programmes, the RT\u00c9 boss said it was in the terms of his contract.<\/p>\n

There has been speculation that The Late Late Show host – who has finished a contract to present the programme – is waiting for the Director General to receive a salary boost from the Government before negotiating his next term as host.<\/p>\n

\"RT\u00c9
\nRT\u00c9 Director General Kevin Bakhurst leaves after a meeting with Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan on Tuesday evening (Photo: Collins)<\/p>\n

Asked if he believed this to be the case, Mr Bakhurst said: “I don’t know – I’d love to get that pay deal sorted.”<\/p>\n

When also asked if he wanted Patrick Kielty to return to the programme, he said: “I’d love to keep Patrick – he’s great.” <\/p>\n

Pressed on whether he had a contingency plan, he told reporters: “I’m not going to say that – it’d drive up the cost of some other contingency plan.”<\/p>\n

Mr Bakhurst also addressed his own remuneration when asked about a potential \u20ac20,000 pay rise.<\/p>\n

He said: “The DG salary hasn’t been increased for a long time, and I don’t know whether that is in process, but that’s not my decision.”<\/p>\n

Asked if Mr Bakhurst’s pay increase would be approved, Communications Minister Patrick O’Donovan said: “That issue is under review with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform at the moment – and it’s not a matter for me, it’s [a] matter for the Department of Public Expenditure.”<\/p>\n

Source: Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9’s Director General Kevin Bakhurst has said he would “love” to keep Patrick Kielty as the host of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":457356,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-457355","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457355","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=457355"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/457355\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/457356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=457355"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=457355"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=457355"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}