# RTE salaries



## TarfHead (28 Mar 2013)

So, certain people have taken significant pay cuts but still earn, what seems to most, generous salaries. And because they're funded, to some extent, by public money, comment on the salaries is fair game.

What raised my blood pressure yesterday was the performance, on RTE News, of the RTE 'Head of Spin' and the way she tried to evade answering direct questions.

When asked to comment on the new salary levels, her 'answer' was "but they've been reduced 30% and that's what we need to focus on" and that was all she was willing to discuss.

For example, Eamon Dunphy has taken a cut significantly above 30% but still seems, to me, very generously remunerated for .. panel analysis for international & CL games, contributing to radio programmes by phone. Over 100K for a part-time job  ?


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## Delboy (28 Mar 2013)

The happiest person in Ireland right now....he/she who's the 11th highest earner in RTE!


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## bazermc (28 Mar 2013)

Another one that I find strange is that most of RTE presenters are all self employed and not contracted as actual employees of RTE.

Revenue need to sit up and take note - they are clearly employees of RTE and employers PRSI is due.  The documents might say they are not, but in substance they clearly are.


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## Purple (28 Mar 2013)

delboy said:


> the happiest person in ireland right now....he/she who's the 11th highest earner in rte!



 Good one!


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## bazermc (28 Mar 2013)

Brendan O'Connor is the worst of all (€228,500 in 2011) for a 2 hour show once a week that only is only actually on a few months a year.

Terrible Value for money!


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## Purple (28 Mar 2013)

bazermc said:


> Brendan O'Connor is the worst of all (€228,500 in 2011) for a 2 hour show once a week that only is only actually on a few months a year.
> 
> Terrible Value for money!


In fairness to all presenters there's more to it than just turning up a few minutes before the show and buggering off the minute it finishes.


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## huskerdu (28 Mar 2013)

bazermc said:


> Another one that I find strange is that most of RTE presenters are all self employed and not contracted as actual employees of RTE.
> 
> Revenue need to sit up and take note - they are clearly employees of RTE and employers PRSI is due.  The documents might say they are not, but in substance they clearly are.



They are all bad value for money, but I think that they are contractors is a good thing for a few reasons. 

1) RTE does not have to pay an pension contribution
2) On short term contracts, its easier to drop them  ( and RTE should take note of this fact)

Revenue are aware of this. Many people in the media / IT and other industries are contractors and charge a fee to their employers. 

Most of these 10 do actually do a lot of other corporate work  so RTE is not the only customer of their company.


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## bazermc (28 Mar 2013)

Purple said:


> In fairness to all presenters there's more to it than just turning up a few minutes before the show and buggering off the minute it finishes.


 
From watching Brendan and Ryan I get the impression they only turn a few minutes before the show.


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## Purple (28 Mar 2013)

bazermc said:


> From watching Brendan and Ryan I get the impression they only turn a few minutes before the show.



Yea, but that's because they just aren't that good at their job.
If they were they'd be working on ITV or the BBC.


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## IsleOfMan (28 Mar 2013)

Got to really dislike Joe Duffy. He never seems to listen to what the callers are saying and is in a rush to get to the next caller. When he has nothing intelligent to say he either gives a big "sigh" or repeats himself constantly. If the caller isn't controversial enough he goes on about it being a "bad line" and gets rid of them. I can usually hear just fine. 
It's funny to be listening to the show and reading the comments on boards.ie. When Joe Duffy goes on holiday Damian O'Reilly stands in for him. At least he can ask some relevant questions.


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## TarfHead (28 Mar 2013)

Purple said:


> In fairness to all presenters there's more to it than just turning up a few minutes before the show and buggering off the minute it finishes.


 
I know exactly what it takes to prepares for such a chat show; I've seen every episode of Larry Sanders  !


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## MrEarl (29 Mar 2013)

Hello,

I am sorry but I missed this thread, when I started my own  recently (perhaps the titles to discussions in this section, do not  appear on "Today's posts") ... although it was on the more general issue  of RTE & how we could do better - please see this link:

http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=177994

Suffice  to say, it's time everyone starting complaining to the relevant  Minister and apply more pressure on him, to do something about RTE -  it's been loss making more years than not, in the past ten years and  cannot be allowed to continue in it's current form (we've run up enough  bills as a nation for things we don't need or want).  I'm not saying get  rid of RTE as I do genuinely believe there is a place for it ... but  lets make it leaner and meaner - time it became a genuinely commercial  operation, or at least restricted to providing whats actually needed  from a State broadcaster these days.

For those willing to put pen to paper, I believe the relevant Minister is Pat Rabbitte and his contact details are:



> *Pat Rabbitte TD
> Minister for Communications, Energy & Natural Resources*
> 
> Work Address29 – 31 Adelaide RoadDublin 2    TelConstituency Office 01 678 2011Constituency Office 01 618 3772Department Office 01 678 2000Department Office 01 678 9807   Emailpat.rabbitte@oireachtas.ie (Constituency Queries)
> minister.rabbitte@dcenr.gov.ie (Departmental Queries)patrabbitte.ie



Regards

Mr. Earl.


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## celebtastic (29 Mar 2013)

RTE is yet another example of a government body being run for the benefit of the heavily unionised staff, rather than the taxpayers.


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## delgirl (29 Mar 2013)

celebtastic said:


> RTE is yet another example of a government body being run for the benefit of the heavily unionised staff, rather than the taxpayers.


  ....... or the TV licence payers.

It's astonishing that people are being jailed for not paying the TV licence and on the other side the presenters are being paid outrageous salaries for the number of hours they work and the quality of their work.  

Most of them wouldn't stand a chance in the UK and a lot of the presenters there are on less than them.


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## MrEarl (29 Mar 2013)

Hello,

I personally would be more than happy to see a number of younger, perhaps less experienced but nonetheless talented, presenters employed by RTE on far lower salaries ... 

One of only several obvious opportunities to cut the cost of running RTE & by extension, the cost to the taxpayer.

Go on Minister .... I dare you to actually do something radical which might save us some much needed money 

Regards

Mr. Earl.


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## celebtastic (29 Mar 2013)

MrEarl said:


> Go on Minister .... I dare you to actually do something radical which might save us some much needed money
> 
> Regards
> 
> Mr. Earl.



Sadly, the Labour party are bankrolled by SIPTU and other Unions so the chances of real change in RTE are slim to nil.


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## Liamos (2 Apr 2013)

The presenters use the old argument that if they were paid any less, another station might poach them. Call their bluff!

If Ryan Tubridy was paid €200k instead of €600k, whats going to happen? Who's going to poach him? Nobody! He would have no choice but to accept it.


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## Knuttell (2 Apr 2013)

I remember reading somewhere that Vincent Browne gets circa €80k a year to present his nightly TV3 show. 

Thats the bench mark in the private sector that RTE should be using. 

Good God but those salaries are obscene.


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## celebtastic (2 Apr 2013)

Knuttell said:


> I remember reading somewhere that Vincent Browne gets circa €80k a year to present his nightly TV3 show.
> 
> Thats the bench mark in the private sector that RTE should be using.
> 
> Good God but those salaries are obscene.


 

Benchmarking public sector salaries against the private sector???

Naah, it'd never catch on.

;0)


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## Purple (2 Apr 2013)

Knuttell said:


> I remember reading somewhere that Vincent Browne gets circa €80k a year to present his nightly TV3 show.
> 
> Thats the bench mark in the private sector that RTE should be using.
> 
> Good God but those salaries are obscene.


Vinnie has called for a maximum salary for both private and public sector. I hope it's not less than his total income!


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## Leper (3 Apr 2013)

celebtastic said:


> RTE is yet another example of a government body being run for the benefit of the heavily unionised staff, rather than the taxpayers.


 
This comment is not true and if it were about say the non national community or the gay community it would be slated and probably deleted.  But, as it anti trades union it appears there is no problem.

Pat Kenny, Marion Finucane, Joe Duffy etc are box office repeat box office.  RTE makes a fortune through advertising on their programmes.  They are head and shoulders above some of the shock jocks on other radio channels.  They earn their money and if you think you can do the same well, just attend one of Marion's courses and start applying for jobs in RTE.


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## Purple (3 Apr 2013)

Leper said:


> This comment is not true and if it were about say the non national community or the gay community it would be slated and probably deleted.  But, as it anti trades union it appears there is no problem.


 That's some leap. Not agreeing with a vested interest group that seeks to put its members at an economic advantage which hurts other people is not the same as being racist or homophobic. 



Leper said:


> Pat Kenny, Marion Finucane, Joe Duffy etc are box office repeat box office.  RTE makes a fortune through advertising on their programmes.  They are head and shoulders above some of the shock jocks on other radio channels.  They earn their money and if you think you can do the same well, just attend one of Marion's courses and start applying for jobs in RTE.


 I don’t know where to start with that.


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## dereko1969 (3 Apr 2013)

I'm presuming there's a smiley or two missing, no?


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## celebtastic (3 Apr 2013)

Leper said:


> ...just attend one of Marion's courses and start applying for jobs in RTE.


 

Good point - I had overlooked the fact that their RTE income stream is but a single source of income, in addition to the supermarket openings, public appearences and "courses".

As for the comment about non-nationals. Well, that really is one heck of a leap!


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## cork (3 Apr 2013)

There seems to be a lack of talent on RTE radio.

Many presenters are pretty over rated.

They think the BBC will snap them up.

Why?


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## Firefly (3 Apr 2013)

celebtastic said:


> Good point - I had overlooked the fact that their RTE income stream is but a single source of income, in addition to the supermarket openings, public appearences and "courses".



I really can't see the problem with that. Teachers give grinds, electricians do extra jobs in the evenings, professionals do lecturing etc etc


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## Deiseblue (3 Apr 2013)

It should be pointed out that the salaries that so exercise people & prompted this thread are paid to self employed contractors who negotiate their own salaries - there is no Union involvement.


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## celebtastic (3 Apr 2013)

No union involement at RTE?  

If only...


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## gianni (3 Apr 2013)

Deiseblue said:


> It should be pointed out that the salaries that so exercise people & prompted this thread are paid to self employed contractors who negotiate their own salaries - there is no Union involvement.



Less of the facts please Deiseblue

...unions...grrr....rabble...rabble....


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## cork (3 Apr 2013)

Deiseblue said:


> It should be pointed out that the salaries that so exercise people & prompted this thread are paid to self employed contractors who negotiate their own salaries - there is no Union involvement.




Why these people are not on PAYE is anyones guess.


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## T McGibney (3 Apr 2013)

Deiseblue said:


> It should be pointed out that the salaries that so exercise people & prompted this thread are paid to self employed contractors who negotiate their own salaries - there is no Union involvement.




Although many of their top presenters are contractors, RTE remains a heavily unionised environment. I expect you will find that most or all of the contractor presenters are NUJ members. During previous RTE strikes, these people have generally been absent from screens & airwaves.


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## Deiseblue (3 Apr 2013)

T McGibney said:


> Although many of their top presenters are contractors, RTE remains a heavily unionised environment. I expect you will find that most or all of the contractor presenters are NUJ members. During previous RTE strikes, these people have generally been absent from screens & airwaves.



There is no doubt that RTE employees are lucky in that the majority of them are fortunate to be able to avail of Union representation.

However , it is equally true that the salaries of their highest earners , which prompted this thread , are negotiated by those presenters with their employers directly as self employed contractors without Union involvement


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## Firefly (3 Apr 2013)

Deiseblue said:


> However , it is equally true that the salaries of their highest earners , which prompted this thread , are negotiated by those presenters with their employers directly as self employed contractors without Union involvement



And non-unionised, Ryanair staff got a 10% payrise recently too. Time to ditch the union people!!

Seriously though, what you have pointed out may be true, but it's easy enough to pay someone 500k when you are spending someone else's money! 

In RTE's case:

Advertising Revenue + License Fee (taxpayer funded) - Costs = Taxpayer Funded Shortfall

Take away this Taxpayer Funded Shortfall and then you'd see what RTE is really made of.


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## Deiseblue (3 Apr 2013)

Couldn't agree with you more Firefly !

The only aim of my original post was to nail the canard that the Unions had any role to play in negotiating the pay of self employed contractors earning the level of salaries that prompted this thread.


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## Purple (3 Apr 2013)

Deiseblue said:


> Couldn't agree with you more Firefly !
> 
> The only aim of my original post was to nail the canard that the Unions had any role to play in negotiating the pay of self employed contractors earning the level of salaries that prompted this thread.



I think RTE are delighted that this is the only discussion that takes place about them because it hides the real problems at the station.


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## MrEarl (6 Apr 2013)

Firefly said:


> ...
> 
> In RTE's case:
> 
> ...





Agree 100%

Hence, we all need to start putting presure on the Minister to take responsibility and sort this out ... it's long overdue and better value for cuts need to come, in terms of either cost savings at RTE or by removing a non-performing Minister !

Come on people, start complaining and lets see if we can force the Minister to do his job ....

Regards

Mr. Earl.


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## celebtastic (7 Apr 2013)

MrEarl said:


> Agree 100%
> 
> Hence, we all need to start putting presure on the Minister to take responsibility and sort this out ... it's long overdue and better value for cuts need to come, in terms of either cost savings at RTE or by removing a non-performing Minister !
> 
> ...



Do you honestly think that Minister Rabbitte, a SIPTU stalwart and former president of Sinn Fein (the Workers Party), has even the slightest bit of interest in addressing the egregious levels of overpayment in RTE (or indeed, anywhere in the public service)?

Sadly, I think not


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## Purple (7 Apr 2013)

No politician would be stupid enough to take on the Public Sector Broadcaster.


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## MrEarl (7 Apr 2013)

Hi Purple / Celebtastic,

It's the type of attitude that you are both displaying, which is replicated by a large majority of Irish people and hence, we continue to have to suffer the problems we have .... 

It's long past time both of you and many many others started to speak out against whats wrong in this country .... Rabitte will act, if he think's he's out of a job if he doesn't do something, as with all politicans !

Regards

Mr. Earl.


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