{"id":459396,"date":"2026-05-21T03:05:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T03:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/459396\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T03:05:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T03:05:12","slug":"rte-ex-dg-dee-forbes-decided-derek-mooney-would-be-classified-as-producer-committee-told-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/459396\/","title":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9 ex-DG Dee Forbes decided Derek Mooney would be classified as producer, committee told \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Former RT\u00c9<\/a> director general Dee Forbes<\/a> decided Derek Mooney<\/a>\u2019s work for the broadcaster would be classified as a producer, an Oireachtas<\/a> committee has heard. <\/p>\n

The issue of how Mooney\u2019s work was classified has caused a controversy since last week\u2019s decision by RT\u00c9 to restate its top 10 earners list to include the presenter, taken after it \u201creconsidered what constitutes a presenter\u201d.<\/p>\n

It said Mooney had previously been designated as a producer and not a presenter over a period from 2020 to 2024. <\/p>\n

Forbes\u2019s successor, Kevin Bakhurst<\/a>, told Sinn F\u00e9in<\/a> TD Joanna Byrne on Wednesday that the \u201cdecision was taken by the CFO [chief financial officer] and the director general\u201d in 2020, when Mooney would have appeared again as a top earner at the station. <\/p>\n

Bakhurst\u2019s deputy, Adrian Lynch<\/a>, told the committee that there was an instruction given to the payments division that \u201cper DG [director general] he was to be classified as a producer\u201d. <\/p>\n

Mooney, Bakhurst said, had not benefited from the arrangement financially and the current RT\u00c9 chief emphasised the issue was fundamentally different from the 2023 Ryan Tubridy<\/a> payments scandal<\/a> as no payments were secret, with this being an issue of categorisation. <\/p>\n

The committee also heard that RT\u00c9 radio host Oliver Callan<\/a>\u2019s independent production company receives a fee separate from the comedian\u2019s \u20ac150,000 payment for presenting his radio show. <\/p>\n

Bakhurst and Lynch indicated to Fine Gael<\/a> TD Miche\u00e1l Carrigy that Callan was the only high earner at the station earning a substantial fee through an independent production company. However, he conceded other workers may make \u201cthe odd documentary or factual series\u201d and get a sum for such a production. <\/p>\n

The committee was told comedian Tommy Tiernan<\/a> would not appear on its high earners list as he is not employed directly by the station. <\/p>\n

Committee chair Alan Kelly<\/a>, the Labour<\/a> TD for Tipperary North, said in light of the information the RT\u00c9 annual statement of its top earners was worthless and should be disregarded, calling for an across-the-board exercise to establish precisely what is paid to on-air hosts across the station.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018Waste of space\u2019: What we learned about RT\u00c9 from today\u2019s Oireachtas committee hearingOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He put it to Bakhurst that if all payments were included, some on-air presenters could be paid more than the DG himself, with Bakhurst agreeing that could be the case in one or two instances. Bakhurst has previously said nobody in RT\u00c9 should earn more than him. <\/p>\n

He said he would consider publishing this information, but cautioned that no broadcaster in Europe does this. He said he was open to publishing more information about the top earners outside the top 10, but that previous efforts had been hamstrung by data privacy laws which he suggested could need new legislation to bypass. <\/p>\n

The committee also heard that the family of the late RT\u00c9 radio presenter Se\u00e1n Rocks<\/a> was suffering financially due to the categorisation of the host as a producer, and as it stood would have to leave their home in the middle of July due to hardship. <\/p>\n

Bakhurst told the committee he had met Rocks\u2019s widow and had taken the case to the RT\u00c9 board but suggested he was limited in what he could do as rules set for the entire organisation around benefits after an employee dies had to be applied in all circumstances. <\/p>\n

Fine Gael senator Evanna N\u00ed Chuilinn, a former RT\u00c9 sports broadcaster, criticised Bakhurst for his comments this week that the station had paid a price for its transparency, saying it runs a \u201ctwo-tier system\u201d. She said there were \u201chundreds\u201d of people in RT\u00c9 who asked to be reclassified as presenter, including herself, but who never receive presenter contracts. <\/p>\n

Bakhurst rejected this, saying repeatedly that he had driven a renewed transparency agenda at the broadcaster. He said he was not aware of further controversy or any untoward payments but that he would publicise them if they came to his attention. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former RT\u00c9 director general Dee Forbes decided Derek Mooney\u2019s work for the broadcaster would be classified as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":459397,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[199117,8938,125056,195263,3775,42,47232,6189,43,12636,41142,6085,125027,6084,48154,3415,16393,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-459396","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-adrian-lynch","tag-alan-kelly","tag-dee-forbes","tag-derek-mooney","tag-fine-gael","tag-headlines","tag-kevin-bakhurst","tag-labour-party","tag-news","tag-oireachtas","tag-oliver-callan","tag-rte","tag-rte-pay-controversy","tag-ryan-tubridy","tag-sean-rocks","tag-sinn-fein","tag-tommy-tiernan","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459396","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=459396"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/459396\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/459397"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=459396"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=459396"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=459396"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}