{"id":486179,"date":"2026-05-15T15:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/486179\/"},"modified":"2026-05-15T15:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-05-15T15:03:14","slug":"minister-to-meet-kevin-bakhurst-and-rte-officials-to-discuss-presenter-payments-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/486179\/","title":{"rendered":"Minister to meet Kevin Bakhurst and RT\u00c9 officials to discuss presenter payments \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Minister for Culture Patrick O\u2019Donovan<\/a> is due to meet RT\u00c9<\/a>\u2019s director general Kevin Bakhurst<\/a>, chairman Terence O\u2019Rourke and other officials from the State broadcaster next Tuesday to discuss payments made to a number of presenters.<\/p>\n

The State broadcaster is embroiled in fresh controversy after it emerged RT\u00c9 paid almost \u20ac100,000 in total to Claire Byrne<\/a> and Ray D\u2019Arcy<\/a> after they left their roles at Radio 1 last year. <\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 also updated it highest-paid presenters lists for 2024 and 2025 after it reclassified Derek Mooney as a presenter, rather than a producer.<\/p>\n

Byrne topped the highest-paid presenters list in 2025 on \u20ac280,000, while D\u2019Arcy was in fifth place on \u20ac219,992.<\/p>\n

Mooney is eighth on the updated 2024 list with a salary of \u20ac197,151. On the 2025 list, he moved up one place to seventh with a salary of more than \u20ac202,000.<\/p>\n

Mooney presents the one-hour wildlife show Mooney Goes Wild at 10pm on Mondays on RT\u00c9 Radio 1.<\/p>\n

\"RTÉRT\u00c9 broadcaster Derek Mooney <\/p>\n

Speaking on Friday morning, Bakhurst said Mooney is best known as a presenter but the \u201cmajority of his work is as an executive producer\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Friday afternoon, O\u2019Donovan said RT\u00c9 had questions to answer, particularly after being granted State funding worth \u20ac725 million over three years in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cHere we are yet again, Groundhog Day, explaining something that, to be quite honest about, I thought after giving the company three quarters of a billion euro, that we had moved on from that, and that we had moved to a position where there was full disclosure, and we get this information yesterday,\u201d O\u2019Donovan told RT\u00c9 Radio\u2019s News at One.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan said he became aware of the situation on Thursday afternoon when Prime Time contacted his department seeking a comment. The Minister said he \u201cimmediately sought\u201d to speak with O\u2019Rourke and the pair held a virtual meeting on Thursday night. <\/p>\n

Regarding Mooney being designated as a producer by RT\u00c9 from 2020 to 2024, O\u2019Donovan said: \u201cA very logical question that I asked the chairman last night is, how could Derek Mooney have been regarded as anything other than a presenter? <\/p>\n

[\u00a0RT\u00c9 confirms Derek Mooney\u2019s pay was incorrectly listed in public recordsOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a presenter, he is a presenter, he is obviously a presenter. It\u2019s like a duck \u2013 if it walks and quacks like a duck, it\u2019s a duck. But for some reason, unbeknownst to the current chairman, he was re-categorised. Now, why that happened, I don\u2019t know.\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Donovan said the latest revelations will further damage public trust in RT\u00c9 at a time when he is \u201ctrying to get people to buy a television licence\u201d.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cWe have been down this road far too many times, and if we want people to go into their post office and buy their television licence, I think the least that they need to know is who is being paid what in their totality in RT\u00c9.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a statement read out on the News at One, RT\u00c9 said it planned to release further details about Mooney\u2019s salary in recent years.<\/p>\n

Byrne and D\u2019Arcy both left RT\u00c9 in October, later moving to Newstalk<\/a> and starting a podcast<\/a> respectively. <\/p>\n

\"ClaireClaire Byrne and Ray D’Arcy. Photographs: Conor McCabe\/Newstalk & Alan Betson <\/p>\n

Byrne ceased providing services to RT\u00c9 on October 31st but her company Derrough Media Limited was paid \u20ac47,000 for the last two months of the year.<\/p>\n

D\u2019Arcy ceased providing services on October 9th but his company Whatnext Productions Limited was paid \u20ac50,000 after that date.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Morning Ireland on Friday, Bakhurst defended the decision to pay both presenters after they stopped working at the broadcaster, saying it was \u201ctotally the right decision\u201d. He said presenters, \u201calthough they\u2019re are paid a lot of money, they also have contracts\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cPeople have notice periods, and you have to abide by that … If we hadn\u2019t, by the way, and we got into a legal fight, it would have cost us a shedload more money than it did.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bakhurst said Byrne had offered to stay until the end of her contract but RT\u00c9 asked her to leave early so it could launch the new Radio 1 schedule. <\/p>\n

He said both presenters \u201cwere available to work until [the end of their contracts], but we took a decision, we wanted to launch the new schedule\u201d.<\/p>\n

Speaking on her Newstalk programme on Friday, Byrne said she resigned from RT\u00c9 last summer and her contract ran until the end of 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cI made it clear, I was happy to stay on and work there until the end of my contract,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut RT\u00c9 came to me and told me that they wanted me to finish up at the end of October. That was their right and their decision. So that\u2019s how that happened, from my perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n

When it was announced last October that D\u2019Arcy was leaving the State broadcaster, the presenter said he was \u201cblindsided<\/a>\u201d \u2013 something disputed by RT\u00c9\u2019s director of audio Patricia Monahan<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Irish Times has contacted RT\u00c9, D\u2019Arcy and Mooney for comment. <\/p>\n

During the Morning Ireland interview, Bakhurst defended both the decision to classify Mooney as a producer six years ago and the decision this week to reclassify him. <\/p>\n

Bakhurst said no one on RT\u00c9\u2019s current leadership team was involved in the decision to reclassify Mooney in 2020. He said RT\u00c9 recently sought independent legal advice about the matter and was told the decision was \u201ca perfectly rational decision to take at the time\u201d.<\/p>\n

The director general said: \u201cThat [decision] was made some time ago by people not there any more but we actually took independent legal advice when the issue arose in the last few weeks about the decision that was taken in 2020, and the legal advice was it was a perfectly justifiable decision given that Derek\u2019s contract is as executive producer, but we take a different view.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bakhurst said \u201csomeone in finance\u201d at RT\u00c9 raised the question in recent weeks as to whether Mooney was \u201ccorrectly classified\u201d. <\/p>\n

The director general said Mooney has \u201cbeen a member of staff for nearly three decades with RT\u00c9, and he\u2019s actually been on a radio producer [contract] and then an executive producer contract with RT\u00c9 for a couple of decades now\u201d.<\/p>\n

After reviewing the situation, Bakhurst said the current executive team made the decision to reclassify Mooney as a presenter, as part of \u201cefforts to be transparent and as thorough as possible\u201d.<\/p>\n

During the interview, Sarah McInerney<\/a> said the maximum salary for a producer on the RT\u00c9 pay scale in 2021 was \u20ac90,000, meaning the majority of Mooney\u2019s salary \u201cmust have still been coming from his presenting role\u201d.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Sarah McInerney: When I told my manager I was pregnant he said, \u2018can\u2019t be helped I suppose\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

In response, Bakhurst said Mooney\u2019s roles at the broadcaster \u201cchanged over the years\u201d and \u201cwhen people\u2019s roles change, quite often their salaries change with them\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2020, RT\u00c9 implemented a 15 per cent pay reduction for its highest-earning presenters as part of a restructuring plan. McInerney asked if the decision to reclassify Mooney as a producer was a \u201cside deal\u201d to avoid cutting his salary.<\/p>\n

Bakhurst said that was \u201ca very unfair gloss to put on [Mooney]\u201d, adding: \u201cI don\u2019t think he got a pay cut but he was on the staff salary he was on, and he was on an executive producer role already by that stage.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bakhurst said Mooney was informed of RT\u00c9\u2019s decision to reclassify him as a presenter but he \u201cplayed no role in this\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe told him this was happening, and he agreed that that was our decision, but he\u2019s played no role in this at all. You know, he\u2019s just carrying on with his work.\u201d<\/p>\n

TDs and Senators will have an opportunity to question RT\u00c9 on the matter next week as representatives of the broadcaster were already scheduled to appear at the Oireachtas Committee on Media to discuss issues related to funding and pensions.<\/p>\n

Committee chairman, Labour TD Alan Kelly, said a number of questions arose on the reclassification of Mooney\u2019s pay, including why it \u201cwasn\u2019t brought to the fore\u201d in 2023 when RT\u00c9 was facing scrutiny over other payments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Minister for Culture Patrick O\u2019Donovan is due to meet RT\u00c9\u2019s director general Kevin Bakhurst, chairman Terence O\u2019Rourke and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486180,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[23898,212041,18,117,19,17,16036,36103,56911,1181],"class_list":{"0":"post-486179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-claire-byrne","9":"tag-derek-mooney","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-kevin-bakhurst","15":"tag-patrick-o-donovan","16":"tag-ray-d-arcy","17":"tag-rte"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116579206213187796","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486179","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=486179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486179\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}