{"id":485152,"date":"2026-05-15T00:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T00:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/485152\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T00:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T00:03:09","slug":"rte-confirms-derek-mooneys-pay-was-incorrectly-listed-in-public-records-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/485152\/","title":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9 confirms Derek Mooney\u2019s pay was incorrectly listed in public records \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

RT\u00c9<\/a> has confirmed that Derek Mooney<\/a>\u2019s pay was incorrectly listed in public records and its updated details have seen the presenter listed among the broadcaster\u2019s top 10 earners for 2024. <\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 said it had decided to revise its top 10 highest-earning presenters for 2024 to include Derek Mooney after it \u201creconsidered what constitutes a presenter\u201d.<\/p>\n

Publishing its results for 2025, RT\u00c9 said that, in line with the Government\u2019s expert advisory committee\u2019s recommendations, it made the decision \u201cto consider all personnel holding dual roles\u201d for inclusion in the top 10 presenters list.<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 said Mooney had previously been designated as a producer and not as a presenter over a period from 2020 to 2024.<\/p>\n

The change in how the presenter was characterised meant Mooney appeared eighth on the 2024 list with a salary of \u20ac197,151. <\/p>\n

And in the 2025 list, he moved up one place to seventh with a salary of just over \u20ac202,000.<\/p>\n

The last time Mooney appeared in the top 10 list of earners was in 2014 when he finished in 10th position on a salary of \u20ac168,871. <\/p>\n

He did not appear on the list in 2015 or subsequent years as according to RT\u00c9 he would not have earned enough for inclusion between 2015 and 2019.<\/p>\n

Top of the list for 2025 was Claire Byrne<\/a> \u2013 who left RT\u00c9 last year \u2013 on \u20ac280,000, followed by Patrick Kielty<\/a> who earned \u20ac266,323 with Miriam O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> finishing last year as the third-highest earner on \u20ac244,797.<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 also disclosed in the statement on its top earners that Claire Byrne\u2019s company Derrough Media Limited and Ray D\u2019Arcy\u2019s company Whatnext Productions Limited continued to be paid until the end of last year, even though they stopped providing services to the national broadcaster in October 2025. <\/p>\n

D\u2019Arcy\u2019s company was paid \u20ac50,000 and Byrne\u2019s company \u20ac47,000 from the time they left the broadcaster until the end of the year. These figures are included in the overall pay figures listed for 2025.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Arcy and Byrne ceased broadcasting on RT\u00c9 on October 9th and October 31st respectively. Byrne left to join rival broadcaster Newstalk, while D\u2019Arcy has since launched a podcast. <\/p>\n

The two broadcasters held contracts with RT\u00c9 through their companies covering the whole of 2025. <\/p>\nTop 10 RT\u00c9 Earners for 2025<\/tr>\n\n1<\/td>\nClaire Byrne<\/b> <\/td>\n\u20ac280,000<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n2<\/td>\nPatrick Kielty<\/b><\/td>\n\u20ac266,323<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n3<\/td>\nMiriam O\u2019Callaghan<\/b><\/td>\n\u20ac244,797<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n4<\/td>\nBrendan O\u2019Connor<\/b><\/td>\n\u20ac239,998<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n5<\/td>\nRay D\u2019Arcy<\/b><\/td>\n\u20ac219,992<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n6<\/td>\nDavid McCullagh<\/b><\/td>\n\u20ac206,393<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n7<\/td>\nDerek Mooney<\/b> <\/td>\n\u20ac202,264<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n8<\/td>\nDarragh Maloney<\/b> <\/td>\n\u20ac197,840<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n9<\/td>\nGeorge Lee<\/b> <\/td>\n\u20ac194,406<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n\n10<\/td>\nD\u00e1ith\u00ed \u00d3 S\u00e9<\/b><\/td>\n\u20ac192,809<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

The chairman of the national broadcaster\u2019s board, Terence O\u2019Rourke, said the board \u201csupports the ongoing commitment by RT\u00c9 to transparency as evidenced in today\u2019s announcement\u201d.<\/p>\n

The decision by RT\u00c9 to revise the public record to reflect the earnings of Mooney in 2024 will inevitably draw comparisons with the scandal that engulfed the station in 2023 when it emerged it had paid the then Late Late Show presenter Ryan Tubridy \u20ac345,000 more than it had publicly stated over a six-year period. <\/p>\n

That scandal led to multiple resignations, Oireachtas hearings and a collapse in public confidence. While the latest payment issue appears to be less complex, it is still likely to be embarrassing for the broadcaster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9 has confirmed that Derek Mooney\u2019s pay was incorrectly listed in public records and its updated details have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":485153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9,10,23898,212041,18,13,14,6,19,17,48706,11,12,15,16,16035,5,3409,1181,26666,7,8],"class_list":{"0":"post-485152","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-claire-byrne","11":"tag-derek-mooney","12":"tag-eire","13":"tag-featured-news","14":"tag-featurednews","15":"tag-headlines","16":"tag-ie","17":"tag-ireland","18":"tag-late-late-show","19":"tag-latest-news","20":"tag-latestnews","21":"tag-main-news","22":"tag-mainnews","23":"tag-miriam-o-callaghan","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-patrick-kielty","26":"tag-rte","27":"tag-ryan-tubridy","28":"tag-top-stories","29":"tag-topstories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116575666781986110","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=485152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/485152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/485153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=485152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=485152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=485152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}