THE CHAIR OF RTÉ’s board has said that it intends to publish a list of the national broadcaster’s top 100 earners. 

Siún Ní Raghallaigh gave the commitment while being questioned at the Public Accounts Committee alongside other RTÉ representatives over the circumstances that led to a €345,000 discrepancy in the disclosed earnings of presenter Ryan Tubridy since 2017.

Representatives were asked at the Oireachtas Media Committee yesterday whether they would consider publishing a list of RTÉ’s top 100 earners instead of a list of its top ten highest paid earners. 

Interim deputy director general Adrian Lynch said the suggestion had been “noted”.

Opening questions today, Fianna Fáil TD James O’Connor raised the matter again with Ní Raghallaigh, along with a question about publishing the earnings of the executive board. 

Ní Raghallaigh said that the current review of the top earners will include the executive board and that consideration will be given to publishing their salaries.

“In terms of publishing those, it’s certainly something that we are considering should be done and it was discussed yesterday at the joint Oireachtas Committee in relation to that,” she said.

However, O’Connor said that “to consider is not enough”.

“I think they should be published in full because nothing else, quite frankly, is going to rebuild the public’s trust with your organisation until they know precisely how much money each member has earned,” he said.

“I think in addition to that, the top 100 owners within the organisation of RTÉ should also now be made public. That’s absolutely imperative.”

Ní Raghallaigh said she would undertake to do that. 

Asked if the board had a timeline in mind as to when they might be published, she said: “As soon as practically possible, in terms of being able to extract the information and make it make it available.” 

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This was welcomed by O’Connor. 

RTÉ publishes a list of its top ten highest paid earners annually. 

It comes after the incoming presenter of The Late Late Show Patrick Kielty revealed that he will receive a salary of €250,000.

He has signed a deal for three seasons of 30 shows each.

The deal also includes a one-off payment of €20,000 for pre-production and rehearsals before the show returns to TV screens in September after the summer break.

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