Apart from the huge salaries why do we have to see the same faces and listen to the same voices? There are so many other talented broadcasters and presenters in Ireland.
New faces please RTE.

Whatever about the rest of them Marion Finucane’s half a million plus for four hours radio is off the charts. Ryan Tubridy was doing five days radio and one nights TV for the same money. Doubt if Marion’s hourly rate is matched anywhere in radio.

why would anyone pay those kind of salaries to mediocrities? are they’re people in the background at rte getting paid even more?

And Pat Kenny bitches and moans about doctors pharmacists teachers…he’s paid from tax revenues (tv tax) as well in a more-or-less closed market. How can rte justify paying that much? Market forces? Which one of their rivals is likely to pay even half of those salaries? Give them a 50% cut and see if they walk!

How do you do it tubridy? I’m sure your a very nice guy but come on 500k, I think 150 / 200k would be a very fair wage for you my friend.

Why not get rid of the TV licence / “tax”

The talk about losing top Talent to other broadcastors? Who in the name of god would want Pat Kenny! Poor Gerry god rest him has more life in him

So Finucane is getting paid more than the president of the united states for just 4 hours a week? Mad world altogether!

We better give them pay rises straight away to keep them away from the arms of the BBC, ITV of SKY

Is there a particular reason why most of them have their salary paid to a LTD company?

It is a tax, no question! It’s a stealth tax. If a house has no tv, do they get a license bill? Yes. When they explain theyve no tv, are they believed? No! You need a license for a car because it’s dangerous, a license for a dog because it can be dangerous, a license for a gun because it’s dangerous……and tax for your tv so pat kenny can pay his legal team to sue a retired couple for a strip of unusable land!

More than likely another tax exile for the elite!
None of them are worth a 10th of those salaries.

RTE basically stands for
RUBBISH TELEVISION EVERYDAY

With salaries like these it’s not hard to see why there aren’t any real journalists there. If they started reporting the news for what it is ( that the economy is worse than they want to admit) that might provoke public action for a pay cut. Pat K might not be able to afford bringing an elderly man and his wife to court over a field. The horror.

Patrick, Andrew, Sean, I could not agree more. 4 hours’ work at the weekend for a cool 1/2 a mill. Nice.
what exactly is this “show” investigative journalism or Chatting with Granny or some sort of weekend drivel ‘easy listening’ or “whatever you’re having yourself”, Marian. Time to switch off or Occupy Granny’s House. National Broadcaster? Me hole.

TV – subsidised by tax payers. Why?
TV 3 don’t get it and the competition authority chairman should resign for being afraid to confront it for years.

Ah that’s nice. I feel better now that I couldn’t afford the dentist this month because of the tv license fee. Sure rte presenters need the money more.

Jesus, if this is what passes as broadcasting talent in Ireland we may as well sack them all. Would love to know what benchmark was being used when deciding what to pay these no hopers…

Given that 2010 figures were released too why are they not either the focus of the article or at least included? V odd

RTE are the one’s to blame not the presenters. They pay the salaries. They will look for a licence increase just like the ESB and Bord Gais did. Guess what they will get it. The government will continue to fund them. This is what has the country In the mess it is in.

RTE = REALLY TERRIBLE ENTERTAINMENT.

This story is 12 months old . Sorry but is it still news !

There are a lot of people out there just getting in to broadcasting that would do the job cheaper than those mentioned above and probably better.
It truly baffles me why RTE and other stations aren’t put there trying to get new talent on tv at better prices.

We are paying a licence fee which on my opinion is worthless as it is being spent on overly paid tv hosts and not enough home grown new tv and even other programs from overseas that are worth watching.

What’s with all this LTD company nonsense?

So the only real RTE employees are Derek Mooney and Marty Whelan? That says a lot.

Thought all this LTD company stuff was looked upon by revenue as hidden employment?

Any jobs going there

At a certain point in time, it makes sense commercially for a business to convert a contracting position into a salaried one. It saves on costs as contractors are expensive, very expensive, to employ long term. This is the bit I don’t understand about RTE’s business model.

Pat Kenny is worth his salary. He kept Sean Gallagher/FF out of pesidential office after all.

Dear god, we paid dunphy that much to talk about football a few times a month.

He doesn’t even know what he’s talking about.

Thought all this LTD company stuff was viewed by revenue as hidden employment?

Infuriating.

Before he died Gerry Ryan was on a salary of €580K+? He died, which is very sad for his family and loved ones (so I honestly do not mean any disrespect to him personally), but his slots on the radio were gobbled up within days by other presenters and I challenge you to find radio listeners who really have had any change to their lives since this happened. Again, I don’t mean this as a personal attack against Gerry Ryan, but as a criticism of the suggestion that these presenters are somehow irreplaceable. Somehow worth 10-20 times the average wage in Ireland? Preposterous.

Irish people listen to RTE radio stations as these are among the limited list of stations on offer. Irish people pick a particular programme because of the content, not because of the presenter. If Pat Kenny left tomorrow he would be swiftly replaced and the lives of the general Irish public would go on unaffected. You only have to go to Pat Kenny’s facebook page which currently has 201 ‘likes’. Today with Pat Kenny has 324,000 listeners and Pat Kenny on Facebook has 201 likes? What’s wrong with this picture? Ok, this is far from an accurate comparison, as the average age of Pat Kenny listeners is likely to be much older than Facebook users. But surely the difference shouldn’t be 324,000:201? This tells me Pat Kenny is not what is popular, the content and formula of the programme is what is.

Similarly, The Late Late Show is a formula that Irish people like. Many different people could present it, we’d still watch it, cause there isn’t another option for viewers to see that formula. Don’t for one second suggest that it’s popular because of any one individual.

Even if I’m wrong and particular individuals are what people go for – they sure as hell are not worth more than 100-200k a year and never will be.

Of course Pat Kenny is going to turn down a wage cut. Of course he is!!! RTE has a responsibility to say “ok, well then we’ll have to let you go”. Where does he go then? To another radio station where he gets a much lower salary? To the BBC, who will have a little chuckle at him and then swiftly send him on his merry way? If he’s forced to take a cut to a wage to 150k or 200k (I fail to see how he’s worth even that much, but we have to be realistic as RTE has to compete with other stations) he’ll do it. He’ll have no other option.

Whatever member of the Department of Communications who sets RTE’s annual budget is most guilty of allowing this to go on for as long as it has. According to the Public Services Broadcasting Charter RTE has to “keep detailed financial records in a manner that will enable the Minister for Communications…, or a party appointed by him, to evaluate RTE’s performance in fulfilling its statutory remit”. Who is okaying this annually?

RTE is mostly a catholic organisation who have a very poor record of hiring other people with different beliefs to positions if real value. It has historically been linked to the church since it started. All of this plus the political connection is not healthy. Mind you the wages are very similar for the general staff.

Voluntarily…ha..ha..