THE DIRECTOR GENERAL of RTÉ was urged by members of the Oireachtas media committee to intervene if at all possible in the financial situation facing the family of the late presenter Seán Rocks, who passed away aged 64 last year. 

Rocks presented the nightly culture show ‘Arena’ for 16 years, but it has emerged that he was being paid a producer salary, and only had an additional allowance in respect of his presenting duties. 

Yesterday Labour Party TD Marie Sherlock told media that she’d spoken with his widow Catherine Bailey, and that she’d learned that RTÉ’s treatment of Rocks’s pay has had “significant financial implications” for his family after his death. 

Fine Gael Senator Evanne Ní Chuilinn said that she had spoken with Bailey and that she had concerns about the position Rocks’s family have been left in. 

“His pension is really poorly impacted, he was getting an allowance for presenting, which other people were too, and that affects their pension long-term,” she said. 

Bakhurst said that he too had spoken with Bailey and that he had lots of “sympathy” with her situation. 

“I wanted to see if there was something we could do,” he said. 

However, he went on to say that there are “many” people in RTÉ who have a core job and then are also in receipt of a presenter’s allowance. 

Ní Chuilinn herself was previously a household name as a sports broadcaster for RTÉ, and at the hearing today she said that she had personally sought for her role to be reclassified also, as she too was only receiving an allowance for presenting. 

Senator Evanne Ní Chuilinn grilled Bakhurst on the issue of role classification within RTÉ.

“If it’s €10,000, it’s taxed at 50% and it’s not pensionable,” she said. 

“You are told you are better off doing that [accepting the allowance for presenting] than going to the WRC, and then you get Arthur Cox letters,” she further said, adding that she was treated “very poorly”, and that she had also gone to Bakhurst to raise her situation. 

Chair of the committee Alan Kelly TD today told Kevin Bakhurst that he too had spoken with Bailey, and that he strongly felt that something needed to be done in the case. 

“That is a horrendous situation,” Kelly said, adding that in his view Rocks “paid for his love of his work”. 

“They are going to have to leave their house on 13 July,” Kelly added. 

Bakhurst said Rocks was a “hugely loved person” within RTÉ. 

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However, he emphasised that many people within the broadcaster currently have the same salary situation. 

“There needs to be one rule for everyone in the organisation,” Bakhurst stressed. 

RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst said that he has spoke with Catherine Bailey and that tried to see if something could be done.

Kelly said that he had received so many pieces of correspondence from RTÉ staff complaining about pay disparity, and that “some kind of process is going to have to be put in place”. 

“I can tell you one thing I know for certain, is that morale is on the floor,” he added. 

RTÉ has said that the organisation has a group life assurance policy “which pays 2.5 times insured pensionable pay on death in service”.  

Bakhurst appeared in front of the committee today alongside RTÉ board chair Terence O’Rourke and deputy director Adrian Lynch to discuss the organisations annual reports. 

The national broadcaster has once again become embroiled in controversy following the revelation that presenter Derek Mooney was not included in a list of top 10 highest earners going back to 2020, as he was being classified as a producer in accounts.