RTE Salaries

robp

bbsrs wrote: »

What guests of note do RTE pull in. Have you watched the flagship Late Late Show or the Saturday Night Show , more interesting guests on CBeebies.

On the Late Late Show there is a steady steam of moderate rate guests. It adds up. I don't see TV3 or TG4 exceeding them in this respect in any way.

nice_guy80

robp wrote: »

On the Late Late Show there is a steady steam of moderate rate guests. It adds up. I don't see TV3 or TG4 exceeding them in this respect in any way.

TG4 don't really do that sort of show
What show do they have that is comparable with The Late Late?

Benedict

Some of the radio presenters are terrific. Pat Kenny is world class and Ireland is lucky to have him. Marian is pretty good too.
But there are terrific Gardai out there too. Terrific teachers and nurses. Terrific fire service workers who risk their lives for us.
But they don't get 2 or 3 grand an hour because they're terrific! They have to struggle to pay the mortgage. If a garda is so brilliant that he or she gets 20 Scott bravery medals, he or she still won't get for a full week's work as much as Joe Duffy gets for 1 hour.

Hey folks! This country is broke - or didn't you realise? We can't afford this nonsense any longer! There are squad cars needed. Pot holes to be fixed. Patients on trolleys because of shortage of beds. There is never money made available for any of that stuff. But no problem when it comes to paying thousands of Euro an hour for someone to answer the phone on air and sympathise with the unfortunate Irish public who are at their wits end worrying about how to pay the ESB bill.

mikom

Benedict wrote: »

Some of the radio presenters are terrific. Pat Kenny is world class and Ireland is lucky to have him. Marian is pretty good too.
But there are terrific Gardai out there too. Terrific teachers and nurses. Terrific fire service workers who risk their lives for us.
But they don't get 2 or 3 grand an hour because they're terrific! They have to struggle to pay the mortgage. If a garda is so brilliant that he or she gets 20 Scott bravery medals, he or she still won't get for a full week's work as much as Joe Duffy gets for 1 hour.

Hey folks! This country is broke - or didn't you realise? We can't afford this nonsense any longer! There are squad cars needed. Pot holes to be fixed. Patients on trolleys because of shortage of beds. There is never money made available for any of that stuff. But no problem when it comes to paying thousands of Euro an hour for someone to answer the phone on air and sympathise with the unfortunate Irish public who are at their wits end worrying about how to pay the ESB bill.

There are people barely keeping a roof over their heads in this country and we are being asked to bankroll this sort of shite.

the taxpayer-funded national broadcaster provided a taxi to bring Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae on a 650km round trip.


The journey took him from Kilgarvan, Co Kerry, to Dublin and back, to appear at RTE's Montrose studios for 'The Saturday Night Show'.


The fare for Mr Healy-Rae's trip would be around €400.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/rte-spends-1000-per-day-on-taxis-despite-costcutting-drive-29144640.html

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Cerco

Benedict wrote: »

Some of the radio presenters are terrific. Pat Kenny is world class and Ireland is lucky to have him. Marian is pretty good too.
But there are terrific Gardai out there too. Terrific teachers and nurses. Terrific fire service workers who risk their lives for us.
But they don't get 2 or 3 grand an hour because they're terrific! They have to struggle to pay the mortgage. If a garda is so brilliant that he or she gets 20 Scott bravery medals, he or she still won't get for a full week's work as much as Joe Duffy gets for 1 hour.

Hey folks! This country is broke - or didn't you realise? We can't afford this nonsense any longer! There are squad cars needed. Pot holes to be fixed. Patients on trolleys because of shortage of beds. There is never money made available for any of that stuff. But no problem when it comes to paying thousands of Euro an hour for someone to answer the phone on air and sympathise with the unfortunate Irish public who are at their wits end worrying about how to pay the ESB bill.

I would not agree that PK is world class. He obviously has a very effective research team to brief him well. He is poor when challenging politicians and likes the sound of his own voice. The greatest irritant is when he raises questions with panelists and then goes on to answer them himself.
Marian is ok but like all others way, way, way overpaid. As for Joe Duffy's moan show well I will comment.

Cerco

"The taxpayer-funded national broadcaster provided a taxi to bring Independent TD Michael Healy-Rae on a 650km round trip.


The journey took him from Kilgarvan, Co Kerry, to Dublin and back, to appear at RTE's Montrose studios for 'The Saturday Night Show'.


The fare for Mr Healy-Rae's trip would be around €400."


To enhance his political profile and I am sure there were other expenses as well. Makes you wonder who are the gob****es.

Benedict

The question here is, who the hell gives RTE the permission to bring in a presenter and say "tell you what, I'll give you two grand an hour of their money for taking calls on air and you'll be filthy rich in five years".

I didn't give permission for my money to be squandered in this way instead of, maybe, paying a couple of hundred an hour (still a lot of lolly) and sending the balance to help the Temple Street Children's Hospital or fixing lighting in ghost estates.

Did you?

Le_Dieux

Benedict wrote: »

The question here is, who the hell gives RTE the permission to bring in a presenter and say "tell you what, I'll give you two grand an hour of their money for taking calls on air and you'll be filthy rich in five years".

I didn't give permission for my money to be squandered in this way instead of, maybe, paying a couple of hundred an hour (still a lot of lolly) and sending the balance to help the Temple Street Children's Hospital or fixing lighting in ghost estates.

Did you?

And then the same 'receptionist' has the gall and balls to take (?) 3g's for a 'funny Thursday' next week? And one of the clowns He has on it can only laugh at his own 'jokes'???

Who are the gob****es here? RTE, who pay a hell of a lot of TAX PAYERS MONEY, OR US, the taxpayers??

Benedict

Is it right or is it wrong that a radio presenter be handed 2 or even 3 thousand Euro per hour of public money when sick people are spending days on trolleys due to lack of funds?

These people may be very fine people and we would all wish them well - but this kind of abuse of public money is a national disgrace.

RATM

RTE has somewhere in the region of 2,500 staff and produces mediocre output that constantly needs to be subsidised by the taxpayer, despite their commercial revenue. A lot of RTE's home made TV is outsourced to various film production companies around Dublin & Wicklow. Which begs the question as to what exactly the 2,500 staff are actually doing in there if they are outsourcing the production of TV.

Channel 4 in the UK also outsources a lot of their programming and were the pioneers of it in Britain. They have a total of 200 staff who ensure that their partner firms produce award winning documentaries like Dispatches & films that are not mainstream but still very popular nonetheless. The 7pm Channel 4 news with Jonathon Snow is with out doubt the best news programme available across all channels. Their programming & films are sold across the world and frequently make the station very healthy profits from selling them on to other countries. The success of Channel 4, which only began in 1982, has meant that they were able to fund off shoots like Film4 and E4. They have grown their station over the last two decades by growing their viewship in a far more competitive market that what RTE faces.

The British people can be proud of what Channel 4 has achieved in less than 21 years of existence. They are a public broadcaster who have added to the social and cultural fabric of Great Britain whilst not being a major burden on the taxpayer. They have done this in a lean and efficient manner that is the hallmark of any successful business, all whilst staying true to their public broadcasting remit.

Can Irish people really really say hand on heart that they are proud of what RTE have achieved in 50 years ?


e2a- there is a common misperception that when the writers of Father Ted went to go make the show they pitched it to RTE first who turned them down. This is not true, at least not according to the writers themselves in Hot Press interviews. Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews pitched it straight to Channel 4, the reason being is that they said they felt Channel 4 had more experience and professionalism is making sitcoms than RTE did. The is the main reason RTE lost out on Father Ted was because they felt RTE didn't have the knowledge or experience to realise their vision for the show. Says a lot about RTE really and what the writers thought about working with them. Especially as Father Ted has been syndicated to over 50 countries and been consistently voted by British viewes as the best sitcom ever produced, as well as winning numerous BAFTA awards. In a nutshell RTE were never even invited onto the Father Ted boat because the writers knew too well that they would cock it up and the show would not have been the unmitigated success that it is today.

nice_guy80

RATM wrote: »

RTE has somewhere in the region of 2,500 staff and produces mediocre output that constantly needs to be subsidised by the taxpayer, despite their commercial revenue. A lot of RTE's home made TV is outsourced to various film production companies around Dublin & Wicklow. Which begs the question as to what exactly the 2,500 staff are actually doing in there if they are outsourcing the production of TV.

Channel 4 in the UK also outsources a lot of their programming and were the pioneers of it in Britain. They have a total of 200 staff who ensure that their partner firms produce award winning documentaries like Dispatches & films that are not mainstream but still very popular nonetheless. The 7pm Channel 4 news with Jonathon Snow is with out doubt the best news programme available across all channels. Their programming & films are sold across the world and frequently make the station very healthy profits from selling them on to other countries. The success of Channel 4, which only began in 1982, has meant that they were able to fund off shoots like Film4 and E4. They have grown their station over the last two decades by growing their viewship in a far more competitive market that what RTE faces.

The British people can be proud of what Channel 4 has achieved in less than 21 years of existence. They are a public broadcaster who have added to the social and cultural fabric of Great Britain whilst not being a major burden on the taxpayer. They have done this in a lean and efficient manner that is the hallmark of any successful business, all whilst staying true to their public broadcasting remit.

Can Irish people really really say hand on heart that they are proud of what RTE have achieved in 50 years ?


e2a- there is a common misperception that when the writers of Father Ted went to go make the show they pitched it to RTE first who turned them down. This is not true, at least not according to the writers themselves in Hot Press interviews. Graham Linehan and Arthur Matthews pitched it straight to Channel 4, the reason being is that they said they felt Channel 4 had more experience and professionalism is making sitcoms than RTE did. The is the main reason RTE lost out on Father Ted was because they felt RTE didn't have the knowledge or experience to realise their vision for the show. Says a lot about RTE really and what the writers thought about working with them. Especially as Father Ted has been syndicated to over 50 countries and been consistently voted by British viewes as the best sitcom ever produced, as well as winning numerous BAFTA awards. In a nutshell RTE were never even invited onto the Father Ted boat because the writers knew too well that they would cock it up and the show would not have been the unmitigated success that it is today.

RTE outsource a lot of stuff to companies formed/run by former RTE employees!!
in such a small market the salaries paid to staff should be much lower

Benedict

RATM maintains that RTE employs 2,500 people. Is there any register of salaries we pay them? Because if they are anything like what the presenters receive, heaven help us all!

Even a radio presenter way down the food chain can command higher per-hour rates than a top surgeon.

I heard Senator Shane Ross complaining some days ago that the new Governor of the Bank of Ireland was to be paid an outrageous salary. Not a word from Shane about the fact that Joe Duffy's hourly rate of pay is many times greater than that of the Governor of the Bank of Ireland and I think the Governor's job is slightly more difficult than Joe's.

We really do need to start using public funds more intelligently. How about re-directing some of the lolly to the Crumlin Childrens' Hospital or investing in better equipment for our Gardai who are out there each night protecting?

wonder88

Have rte stopped making the salaries of their hugely paid stars public? I seem to remember that their football pudits were on crazy money and provided with expensive taxi service as well. Even with the public tax it gets from the state, rte is still making a big loss in recent years, so I think it is time to let go of some of these high earners. The can always find plenty of firms in the private sector, or abroad, who will pay them what they think themselves the are worth I am sure.

armchair fusilier

wonder88 wrote: »

Have rte stopped making the salaries of their hugely paid stars public?

No, it is obliged to publish it's top 10 earners every two years, but these figures would be from two years before that - so in 2011 the 2009 salaries were published.

• The highest earner that year was Pat Kenny, who earned €729,604, which was paid to Pat Kenny Media Services Ltd.

• Behind him was Balcom Management Ltd, representing the late Gerry Ryan, which was paid €585,944.

• Third-highest earner was Ryan Tubridy – €519,667 was paid to his Tuttle Productions Ltd.

• Marian Finucane was next, with Montrose Services Ltd paid €513,270

• Joe Duffy’s Claddaghgreen Ltd was paid €389,314.

• Baby Blue Productions was paid €290,625 for the services of Miriam O’Callaghan.

• Derek Mooney, an RTE employee, earned €268,985 in 2009.

• Mac Consultants Ltd were paid €225,485 for the services of Eamon Dunphy.

• The second staff member on the list, Sean O’Rourke, was paid €214,084.

• The tenth highest paid earner at RTÉ was Colm Hayes Media Services, for the services of Colm Caffrey, which was paid €213,954.

http://www.thejournal.ie/rtes-top-earners-revealed-altogether-they-were-paid-e3-95m-277491-Nov2011/

Private Joker

armchair fusilier wrote: »

No, it is obliged to publish it's top 10 earners every two years, but these figures would be from two years before that - so in 2011 the 2009 salaries were published.

Its ridiculous that these people are paid through companies avoiding a lot of their tax burden . And if I was derek mooney I'd sack his accountant.

Benedict

Nobody has anything personal against these presenters. You can't blame them for taking huge salaries when they're offered them. Not many of us would refuse sack loads of cash every week for five of six hours chatting on air. But what gets to people is the unfairness. The government is the whole time trawling for ways to save money. Our Garda cars can have 200k on the clock before a new car is given. But a presenter can be paid the price of a new squad car for chatting on the radio for seven or eight hours.

It's public money and most members of the public do not want their hard earned money used to make a small group in RTE rich.

The problem is, the public is not given an option. We are told person X is getting this much per hour - end of story.

nice_guy80

armchair fusilier wrote: »

No, it is obliged to publish it's top 10 earners every two years, but these figures would be from two years before that - so in 2011 the 2009 salaries were published.

great that they can all use private company vehicles to reduce their tax bill

why can't I do that as a teacher??
I'll let the Department of Education pay my company 'Nice Guy Educational services LTD'

and then I can claim all my expenses and other items against tax

whats the difference between the service I provide and that RTE presenters etc provide?

NIMAN

Something I have wondered for a while now, how much do RTE pay the BBC (or the relevant production company) for Eastenders?

Irrespective of what it is, surely its unnecessary? After all, most people in Ireland can receive the BBC channels, can't they? So they can see Eastenders on BBC, withour RTE having to pay money for it.

Simple savings like that would be low hanging fruit. Before of course telling the likes of Marion, Joe, Pat and Ryan that their wages are up for a MAJOR cut.

RATM

Benedict wrote: »

RATM maintains that RTE employs 2,500 people. Is there any register of salaries we pay them? Because if they are anything like what the presenters receive, heaven help us all!

A friend of mine used to work in HR in RTE and I'm informed that the salaries were typically 25-30% above what they would be in the private sector. However that was back in 2007. Nonetheless while public salaries have fallen private have too.

My brother in law works in the IT dept in there and he'd tell you himself that it is a very good salary considering there is a deep recession on. Aside from contracting he says that he doesn't think he could get a better salary anywhere else in Dublin for what he does.

Apart from all that RTE is highly unionised. If a light bulb needs to be changed then you have to call an electrician, if a staff member did it themselves there would be war. If a desk needs to be moved you have to call the facilities manager who will organise for it to be done, perhaps within 48 hours if you're lucky.

It is a dinosaur of an organisation from top to bottom and it exists solely for the interests of its staff.

Just as an aside has anyone ever heard about the secret FF cumman within RTE ? Apparantly it is not official but it does exist and they meet somewhere in Montrose on a regular enough basis. I've never heard if any of the *stars* are members. Though Tubridy would be a chief suspect as would a few others.

Benedict

I think the reason Joe D comes under fire so much is that he is on so regularly and much of his air-time seems to be given over to sympathising with people experiencing money troubles. This must make him feel very awkward at times. But if it is true that he just works just 40 weeks a year, then his income per working week is in the region of ten thousand Euro of public money.

When old and sick people are having allowances chopped to save a few measly quid? When litter is building up in our streets because the authorities haven't got the money to pay people to remove it? When our dedicated Gardai are complaining of lack of resources?

Surely there is something wrong here?

NIMAN

But as said earlier, why would Joe refuse it if someone wants to give him €400k per year.

Me and you would take it too.

Its up to the powers that be to stop it. Huis bosses have to stop it.

Benedict

It may seem that Joe is being singled out on this blog - but perhaps that is because some of us work in locations which have him droning away in the background constantly sighing and groaning in sympathy with people who have very little cash. For what he does, his pay is obscene and everyone knows it - but he's not the only one. The public is accused of "begrudgery" - but it's really just ordinary working people who want value for their hard earned wages. People are fed up paying fortunes to people for chatting on the radio while their child's SMA is removed to save a few bob or because a loved one is stuck on a hospital trolley because there's no proper funding for hospital beds.

It is so unfair to the rest of us in the community.

PRAF

Apologies if someone has already asked this question, but do we actually need a public service broadcaster anymore. In my opinion we don't.

If we sell it off, we won't have to worry about how much Joe Duffy and Ryan Tubridy earns. It'll be someone else's problem.

Benedict

At this point in time, we have RTE and in so many ways, it is a fine station with high standards. The main issue here seems to be that people sitting behind very large desks are extremely generous with our money. In fairness, you can't really blame Joe or the others for saying okay when they're offered huge sums for doing part time jobs. RTE authorities need to cop on to themselves and to remember that money doesn't grow on trees and to stop throwing it around like snuff at a wake.

Three grand a week should be more than enough for someone answering the phone on air for 6/7 hours a week, 40 weeks a year. If RTE have so much cash they don't know what to do with it, let them give to good causes like Temple Street Hospital. The Irish people do not want their funds used to turn a small group of presenters into multi-millionaires while the general public is suffering from drastic cutbacks every day of the week.

spyderski

I can understand presenters in the UK commanding high salaries, as there's more competition among broadcasters, however in this country, the situation defies the laws of economics. If RTE told Kenny, Tubridy , Duffy et al that they were reducing their salaries by 50% in the morning, what could they do about it? Leave and go to TV3? Don't think so! The broadcasters on the privately owned networks, although relatively well-paid, must feel hard done by considering the salaries the RTE guys are getting.
RTE seems to be a gravy train for everyone who works there, from top to bottom.

PRAF

IMO it doesn't matter whether RTE is a fine station or not. Personally I watch the news almost every day, the current affairs is usually top notch, and the sport is great too. The wife loves Home & Away and my daughter loves RTE Jnr! However, I'd love it just as much if it was a private station.

For me the issue is that we just do not need, and cannot really afford, to have a public service broadcaster. Certainly not when that public service broadcaster is making many of its 'stars' millionaires. Even less so when those 'stars' are engaging in tax minimisation stratgies which are not available to those taxpayers who fund their lavish salaries.

The fact that RTE is massively subsidised by the public through a regressive poll tax is unfair IMO. The fact that RTE then uses that public funding to compete unfairly for advertising revenue is a disgrace.

In this age of social media, new media, etc. why on earth do we need a public service broadcaster.

Benedict

Ireland can afford to be a public service broadcaster - but only if they start running it like a proper business. And the first thing it will need to do is stop flinging our money around like snuff at a wake.

PRAF

Benedict wrote: »

Ireland can afford to be a public service broadcaster - but only if they start running it like a proper business. And the first thing it will need to do is stop flinging our money around like snuff at a wake.

What part of RTE relates solely to public service broadcasting? Is it news, current affairs, sporting broadcasts? As it turns out, these are all amongst the most watched shows on RTE. Why does the taxpayer need to subsidise them?

If we really do need taxpayer subsidies then presumably it is for things like Irish language programming. So why not just pay for that? Otherwise the money goes into a big pot somewhere and you have the likes of Tubridy, Duffy, Kenny, et al sucking from the big through of taxpayers money...

IMO the quickest way to addressing exorbitant RTE salaries is to privatise the station.

NIMAN

Interesting to see a piece on the RTE News tonight about the salaries in RTE!

Add to this, giving us big big figures - not sure if they wanted us to see how much of a cut these people had taken, or else how much they still earn. Some top woman from RTE was on teling us how they had taken pay cuts of up to 30%, but still shocking to see how much some 'stars' still earn.

Time all of them were told at their next contract renewel that the most they can afford to pay them is €100,000, take it or leave it. Let them head off to the UK, or America, or Australia and see if they are so much in demand.

Even stranger was how Brian Dobson introduced the piece on the news, and he was one of those named in it! Embarrassing?

Car99

Brendan O Connor and Gerorge Hamilton on €200k+ per year . The mind boggles.
Europe must look at us and say ffs the Irish are in cloud cuckoo land.