While RTE is in substantial receipt of State funds, nobody in RTE should earn more than the President.

Good luck to any of those RTE humps trying to negotiate salaries like their present ones with other broadcasters! They’d be laughed out the door!!!

Let the RTE "talent" off into the wilds to get a new job. See if they can negotiate a good salary with BBC or UTV Etc. a joke is what it is!

fact is most of these RTE celebrities wouldn’t get a job anywhere else at those figures

Just once I’d like to see one of these presenters be allowed “jump ship” and see how they get on at a commercial station where you have to maintain standards as there are several other people who will be put in your job if you don’t. I certainly think things will run just as smoothly at RTE if Duffy were to go, that’s for sure.

Hey, Duffy – why don’t you give yourself a call and talk about it.

It’s the Kenny Salary that gets me the most nearly 1million that would be nearly 20 ,000 a week if my sums are right That type of money is vulgar and morally wrong

900k ??? Damn right they should take a pay cut! About 850k worth

In the past it was in RTE executive’s interest to keep the ‘talent’ wages high – it meant that they themselves could have higher wages without it seeming crazy, it flew under the radar.

I was just thinking that Pat Kenny gets paid almost a million a year and there is probably only about half a million tv licences (assumption). So he’s getting about two euro out of every tv licence. It beggars belief!

What does he get paid for. All he does is let octogenarians rant on his show and he just nods along with his trademark "yeah …. Yeah….ok…..yeah" and he gets paid six figures for it. At least the heads of semi states were actually doing something. This man sickens me.

If I was running the national broadcaster in get my firing stick out. I’d also pull out my reprogramming wand and my common sense boxing glove.

I’m no fan of Joe (still missing Marian), but what he’s actually saying there is that RTE are a shower of fools – Pat and the rest negotiated these insane salaries, but it was RTE that agreed to pay them. Who wouldn’t ask their employer for several hundred grand if they thought for one instant that they were stupid enough to agree?

Joe Duffy is a smarmy oily hypocrite with his “yes pet” “God bless” pretend empathy while he runs all the way to the bank with his big fat paycheck.Disgusting. #RTE

For a Social Science graduate, Joe Duffy shows little awareness of how hollow his justifications of his salary will ring with the many struggling citizens in our increasingly unequal society, showed taxes make him a rich man. The spread of street protests around the western world should show people on the elite, the 1% who own 99% of the wealth, that there comes a time when the majority will realise that the system no longer serves them.

These telephone number salaries are ridiculous. Maybe They should be put on a minimal salary and paid a percentage based on their listenrship. If they can keep their ratings high then they get paid in relation to that. But what’s wrong here is these RTE divas think they are untouchable and so don’t give a sh1te what drivel they spill out over the national airwaves. Since the introduction of independent radio stations truth is their numbers have declined dramatically but their wages have soared!!!

He’s sort of avoiding the issue. Perhaps Pap Kenny et al did fairly negotiate their current salaries.
The question as to whether they are worth the salaries has successfully been dodged by Duffy.
RTE should drop their wages by 75% and then we’ll see how their job hunts go.

Be a good boy Joe and agree with RTE and they will still let you have an obscene salary . Pathetic hypocrite looking after his own skin.

You don’t get paid what you are worth, you get paid wht you negotiate….

Hey Joe, let’s have a "phone in" about it.

He’s very simply defecting. It doesn’t matter that the negotation was totally above board or ‘fair and square’, the fact of the matter is that the RTE negotiators went in to the negotiation without the tax payers best interests at heart, and without any interest in getting value for money. With a presumed audience of maybe 2 million regular viewers for RTE (I mean not including the people that just tune in for the news and weather), do we really call 900k an acceptable figure?

The problem is we all get hung up on individuals. The problem lies in the system and the philosophy of greed behind it. How much are you worth? As much as “the market” will pay you. The question “how can I justify what I get compared to what I need?” is never asked. There is no moral compass guiding us just the magnetism of greed.

Ok sorry for the rant, I’ll piss of to an ashram now right after I’ve sold all my worldly possesions,..

Well I am glad only RTE employees had a negotiated contract. Everyone else, of course, can take more cuts because they obviously do not have a negotiated contract.

Maybe Joe should ply his trade elsewhere to gauge his real worth. Radio Norwich are always looking for new talent, AHA!

Clontarf

sack joes ass and replace him with whoever answers the phone at reception…..

I have triplets you know…

If RTE didn’t pay their top bods so much we might get more variety and diversity. Right now we get Miriam all the time, Pat all the time, Charlie bird all the time, etc…

Do you think for one second that if Pat Kenny or any of those self-seving presenters went to TV3 and aksed for those sort of Salaries, they would have got them? Give us a break Joe, and take your Ivory Tower, we deserve the money attitude with you.

The RTE bosses paid themselves and their pets (presenters) whatever they wanted, as it was only OUR money. They are the same as the establishment Government parties … FF/FG/Labour, al looking out for their own pockets …. USE YOUR VOTES. Take down the establishment.
McGuinness challanged their salaries publicly 3 weeks ago, and we saw what Miriam O’Callaghand and Pat Kenny did to McGuinness in response. These FINANCIAL terrorists need to berooted from our socitey

Do you know what would solve this problem while at the same time save everybody from having to pay a licence fee?
Privatising RTÉ.

I can see it there on the top of me screen…..he’s not bringing sexy back however,just some of his wages

75% of the licence money should go to TG4. RTE can then sink or swim.

dont know the numbers jimbob ,but after reading this article i feel like telling r.t.e. to shove it up their arse!

Definitely hard times for everyone. Seeing as this wonderful country won’t give me a job, and won’t offer me a penny in welfare, I have to seek out my own work (which is fine by me!) – right now I’m taking in less than â

Just have a little thought on what JR is getting… and he is well by his sell by date

I watched the interview in question and I didn’t take Joe duffys remarks the way the article appears to present it. He made it clear that he himself has complied with all the pay cuts and the RTE statement was not referring to him. When pushed about others he then made the comments about them agreeing these wage packages with management.

It’s a tool for governments to voice their views

When I hear that Joe Duffy fella trying to justify his and other big fat fees, it makes my blood boil. The cheek of him to head up a show, where some of the saddest stories are aired and teased out, with no consideration for the person on the end of the line. The soppier and sadder the story the better for Joe, so long as it makes a good show, that’s the bottom line. Talk to Joe is right – a chancer if there was ever one !

Tom, great comment totally agree…more than just the public service thats bloated.
Re other comments wouldn’t agree with privatizing rte, still think much of the home grown tv is quality. The Salary issue is a no brainer though, if the big names were offered a 50% cut or the door they would take it with bells on.

Anyone who thinks that getting people to talk on the air, and steering the conversation in such a way that it frequently becomes tomorrow’s headlines, is a job anyone could do is nuts – Joe’s a very skilled host, however much his show isn’t to my own tastes.

Problem is that his (and others’) salary should be linked to advertising revenues for his slots – a basic wage (but a decent one, taking account of his talent and longevity) reflecting the contribution of the license payer. topped up with a bonus figure based on revenue generated. This rewards him fairly for the quality of his work, and ensures that the best will be driving themselves to get, and hang on to, the prime slots.

The BBC often get criticised for the squandering their licence fee on huge budgets (and actor/presenter salaries) for things like Dr. Who, Eastenders and wildlife shows – however, these shows are sold on to foreign markets and bring in many times their costs, subsidising the rest of the BBC’s output even without advertising. Do Joe, Pat and even the divine Marian bring in significantly more than they cost, and thus subsidise anything?

Oh, geeze guys, I really feel sorry for you all, struggling away on those salaries.

in short: the people sanctioning these salaries are not worried where the dosh comes from- other peoples`money

It beggars belief that Joe Duffy and a few others are being dumped on with such venom. One would imagine from some posts that they were responsible for all ills in the country. As i understand it, all these people have agreed salary reductions. To put matters in perspective, AIB will probably receive 20 bn and Anglo 28 bn from the taxpayer. The real problem is with the public sector pay bill. There are too many employed for such a small population and too much duplication. On Vincent Browne last night, there was a fire officer. He gave a brief comparison between numbers of senior posts in the North and in the Republic, and the Republic seems to have a hell of a lot more. Since the mid nineties governments went mad creating more and more bureaucratic categories and associated career ladders. The result is huge replication of posts in local authorities, community enterprise boards, HSE offices, third level institutes, etc. The actual percentage of these posts that contribute to growth is a mystery to me, and many people in business. The government doesn’t want to confront this wastage, hence Croke Park Deal. But the cost of hanging on to so many is bought at the price of reducing the salaries and living standards of most. So those who are surplus, and possibly useless, are retained and the good ones have their salaries cut to keep the drones in their offices. Nuts.

Joe is worth every penny.

Joe Duffy mmm any one could do that job of chatting on radio and then to get that exuberant amount of money ESP for radio. I’d say we will have to ring Joe to have a discussion on this all he does is talk the talk