{"id":462233,"date":"2026-05-22T19:24:12","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/462233\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T19:24:12","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T19:24:12","slug":"he-deserved-better-partner-of-sean-rocks-seeks-meeting-with-rte-over-pension-issue-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/462233\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He deserved better\u2019: Partner of Se\u00e1n Rocks seeks meeting with RT\u00c9 over pension issue \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The partner of the late Se\u00e1n Rocks<\/a> has requested a meeting with RT\u00c9<\/a> director general Kevin Bakhurst to discuss the presenter being \u201cmisclassified\u201d as a producer at the State broadcaster for years. <\/p>\n

Catherine Bailey, Rocks\u2019s partner of 22 years, said the producer classification meant his family was \u201cvery disadvantaged\u201d financially. <\/p>\n

Rocks, who died at the age of 64 last July after a brief illness<\/a>, presented the Radio 1 arts and culture programme Arena for 16 years, beginning in 2009. <\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 has faced questions in the last week after it confirmed Derek Mooney was classed as a producer, rather than a presenter, for years.<\/p>\n

Mooney\u2019s reclassification meant he was paid enough to feature among the 10 highest-paid presenters between 2020 and 2025<\/a>. In revised figures, he featured eighth in 2024 and seventh in 2025, earning \u20ac197,151 and \u20ac202,264 respectively.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, it emerged Rocks had been put on a producer salary with an additional allowance for his on-air role, a situation that his family say negatively affected his pension.<\/p>\n

Bailey on Friday said her late partner was paid a \u201cmodest\u201d salary and nothing \u201cremotely\u201d near the top-10 wages paid to some of his colleagues. <\/p>\n

Speaking on RT\u00c9\u2019s Today with David McCullagh programme, she said Rocks tried to rectify the situation with RT\u00c9 management on multiple occasions over the years.<\/p>\n

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

Bailey said: \u201cIt was a huge part of our lives and it was something that really kept Se\u00e1n up at night. He wanted to tidy up his situation . . .<\/p>\n

\u201cSe\u00e1n went in numerous times to senior management to try and get this rectified and to say: \u2018I\u2019m being misclassified, I\u2019m not a producer, I shouldn\u2019t be on this allowance situation with my main wage, can you please rectify this?\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd, you know, he was fobbed off an awful lot, as in: \u2018Yes, yes, we\u2019ll get back to you, we\u2019ll get back to you\u2019. But, unfortunately, it never happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey said Rocks\u2019s death was \u201cbeyond traumatic\u201d for her and their two sons. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe thought we\u2019d come out of the woods with his health issues and we felt we were on the upward trajectory . . . For it to happen the way it did, so suddenly, it was very, very shocking. Very distressing for me and the children.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey said she was still in a \u201cvery grief-stricken state\u201d when she tried to tackle some of the administration that needs to be done when a person dies. She got in touch with RT\u00c9 about Rocks\u2019s pension and was given \u201ca number that seemed completely out of whack to Se\u00e1n\u2019s earnings\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bailey said she thought the figure was wrong and queried it with RT\u00c9. She said she was \u201creassured, rather coolly\u201d in a \u201cclinical letter\u201d the number was correct.<\/p>\n

The issue was raised when Bakhurst and other RT\u00c9 officials appeared<\/a> at the Oireachtas media committee on Wednesday. Bakhurst said he had spoken to Bailey and wanted to try to find a solution. <\/p>\n

Bailey on Friday said she had requested a meeting with Bakhurst. In a statement read out on RT\u00c9 radio, the director general said he was happy to meet her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a single mother now with two very young children left in this precarious situation,\u201d Bailey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re good people. We\u2019re honest, hardworking people. We just wanted what was fair and Se\u00e1n just wanted to be treated correctly.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe worked exceedingly hard, he had such pride in his work. He loved the artists of his country . . . He actually loved RT\u00c9 and all the workers in there, so it\u2019s just very difficult to, at the end of his days, that posthumously we\u2019re being treated like this . . . Se\u00e1n deserved better.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The partner of the late Se\u00e1n Rocks has requested a meeting with RT\u00c9 director general Kevin Bakhurst to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":462234,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,61,60,6085,48154],"class_list":["post-462233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-rte","tag-sean-rocks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462233","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=462233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/462233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/462234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=462233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=462233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=462233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}