FORMER RTÉ SPORTS journalist Evanne Ní Chuilinn said she was not paid as a presenter, despite doing the job of one for a decade at the national broadcaster.

The Fine Gael senator was addressing RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst at the Oireachtas media committee hearing, which was called amid fresh controversy over payments, transparency and governance.

Ní Chuilinn said there is a “two tier system” at the national broadcaster, as she took issue with Bakhurst saying RTÉ has ‘paid a price for transparency’.

Bakhurst and deputy director general Adrian Lynch are under pressure from the public and politicians over RTÉ’s revised highest-paid presenters list, which was updated last week to include Derek Mooney after he had previously been classified as a producer rather than a presenter.

“You were able to reclassify Derek Mooney as an organisation when it suited to keep him out of the top 10, but there are hundreds of people working in RTÉ who asked to be reclassified and were told that that wasn’t an option for them,” Ní Chuilinn told Bakhurst.

She said there are people presenting RTÉ shows without presenter contracts. She cited her own experience:

“I presented for your organisation for more than 10 years. I worked there for 20 years.

“When I presented for 10 years, I asked repeatedly and I never got a presenter contract.”

Bakhurst explained earlier that jobs may be advertised as reporter or producer roles, but presenting may become part of it. Those people may get a presenter allowance as payment, on top of their salary.

Ní Chuilinn said when she worked at RTÉ, the maximum presenter allowance she could earn was €10,000. This, she says, was taxed at 50% and was not pensionable.

“I was never paid or contracted as a presenter, and I should have been, because, as you say, ‘presenters earn more than reporters’. No, they don’t,” Ní Chuilinn told Bakhurst.

“I feel like it’s you that’s getting away with a two-tier system, and that you’re not actually being punished for the transparency.”

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Bakhurst said RTÉ’s increased transparency has been met with “noise”.

He added: “There’s always a range of salaries for presenters, depending on experience, depending on how they connect with the audience.”

Ní Chuilinn responded: “I feel like you’re judging individual presenters now who are on the wrong contracts, including me. I was worth, I was good money … You got good value out of people like me.”

Bakhurst said: “I agree with you. There are some people who are paid too much and some people who are paid too little, and we’re trying to address it as we go along.”

Ní Chuilinn asked Bakhurst to “do the right thing” for those who are still presenting programmes for the national broadcaster, by having their contracts and pay more fairly reflect the work they do.