Dee Forbes banging the RTE TV licence drum again 60m uncollected fee *poll not working - pl ignore*

RTÉ staff are now only noticing that George Lee and Darragh Moloney are in the top ten. See RTÉ staff are more annoied now because all of this is being noticed, never once over the last 25 years did you hear any of this from them.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/we-feel-like-fools-unhappy-rte-staff-demand-showdown-with-management-over-pay-scandal/a714160523.html

Why is George Lee on the list of top earners as a correspondent when others news correspondent aren’t?

Why is Darragh Moloney, a sports presenter, on that list when Marty Morrissey [also a sports presenter] isn’t? Why is one paid that amount and the other isn’t?

Then RTÉ tell the Indo to

When asked about Mr Lee’s salary, RTÉ directed the Sunday Independent to its salary guide, which states that entry pay for a correspondent is €69,034 and the highest pay is €94,108.

RTÉ then state

His earnings listed reflect many years of evolving journalistic and presenter duties across radio and television

But almost all of the Correspondents in RTÉ would be in a similar position, George started in 1992, Emma O'Kelly started in 2002 her tenure would now equal that of George's.

Again I’ll state I may be misremembering this but didn’t KB promise to expand that list beyond the Top 10 and to include all staff not just on air “talent”?

I read a poster’s comment from an old thread on this which I found illuminating insofar as he said it’s not so much the overpaid Top 10 that concerns me, it’s what I suspect is hiding in no.’s 11-200.

The simple solutions is to create a spread sheet with 4 columns

Position | Department | Salary | Type of Contract (Employee / Contractor)

Number them 1 - 100 and a separate table for the leadership team.

People can guess the rest, if they want.

https://about.rte.ie/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/RTE-Annual-Report-2024-English.pdf

You are right I don't see it in the RTÉ annual report on a quick scan.

Generally it is broken up into bands of 10Ks starting at 60K - 69K and so on, AFAIK some still report 50 - 59K but they are not obliged to for this band.

that last one won’t be necessary in RTÉ, unless you’re talking monthly fees for presenters in the late 00’s and early 10’s.

I'm not even joking btw.

https://www.waterford-news.ie/more-than-200-people-at-rt%C3%A9-paid-more-than-100000-a-year-at-end-of-2025_arid-98313.html

intriguing.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/we-feel-like-fools-unhappy-rte-staff-demand-showdown-with-management-over-pay-scandal/a714160523.html

“What about correspondents? Why is George Lee on the list of top earners as a correspondent when others news correspondent aren’t?”

Mr Lee, RTÉ’s environment correspondent, earned €194,406 last year.

When asked about Mr Lee’s salary, RTÉ directed the Sunday Independent to its salary guide, which states that entry pay for a correspondent is €69,034 and the highest pay is €94,108.

“His earnings listed reflect many years of evolving journalistic and presenter duties across radio and television,” said a spokesperson.

Is everyone getting the same longevity recognition?

If you can get past the paywall, I wonder who one of RTE's sources is? ;)

It is ironic that if Derek Mooney was included in 20-23 George Lee would have been pushed out of the top ten, meaning there would have been less focus on him, which makes you question why the number of salaries shown stops at the arbitrary number of ten.

Speaking at the book’s launch at Hodges Figgis in Dublin city centre on Wednesday evening, Mr Ross said there was a “very triumphant trio” that left RTÉ in a good place in 2014.

He was referring to then-communications minister Pat Rabbitte, who was in attendance to help launch the book, former RTÉ board chairman Tom Savage, and former RTÉ director general Noel Curran.

https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/shane-ross-puzzled-after-new-book-on-rte-met-with-wall-of-silence-from-national-broadcaster/a1639522457.html

Noel Curran was DG to 2016, I don't believe that all the problems revealed during Dee Forbes time only started when Dee Forbes became DG…

It appears she did an excellent job in continuing that rot, while berating us the public about paying our license fees.

She needs to be held accountable for her role.

Great of the RTÉ Guide to give Doireann Garrihy an interview to promote her podcast and her podcast tour, and for rte.ie to subsequently publish it.

https://www.rte.ie/lifestyle/living/2026/0518/1573683-doireann-garrihy-i-try-to-be-myself-in-everything-i-do/

I mentioned recently that RTÉ Radio and TV could be rebranded as NKM FM and NKM TV, equally the RTÉ Guide could be rebranded to the NKM Guide as it’s rare one of the NKM “stars” isn’t on the cover or featured inside.

And this of course is AFTER Mr. Kelly was front and centre during The Ryan Tubridy Pay Scandal, Backhurst’s comments about not dealing with agents and the comments about minimising advertising leakage. They really don’t help themselves at all.

Golly gosh you scoundrel with your imaginative use of AI!

Interesting to see a young Simon Pegg in that clip. Chris Morris also made an appearance in this episode I believe as a “posh farmer” so to speak.

Items to drop off the bridge? A copy of “Patrick and the President” would be enough to topple The Toyman I suspect. Dee Forbes? That might however cause injury to her and delay her testimony to any committee investigating RTÉ and we certainly wouldn’t want that now would we?

Maybe a giant novelty cheque?

Yes it’s great to see The Toyman out and about and discovering that our President speaks Irish! That’s quite a scoop for the self-proclaimed political anorak! I was delighted he got dressed up for the occasion too. The nautical theme is perfect for someone who appears somewhat “lost at sea” so to speak in today’s changing media landscape.

Perhaps he could now write “Caitríona agus an Uachtarán” as a follow up to “Patrick and the President”; although as rudimentary and basic as his English is I feel even a children’s book as Gaeilge might be beyond him. He wouldn’t even need the services of an illustrator to insert himself into the pictorial elements of the book this time as AI could do it for him. It would be blasta.

Showing my age here …

Can any of ye remember presenters like Pat, Gay, Marian etc. being on around 900k a year? Could be wrong …

You're not wrong.

In 2008, Pat Kenny was paid €950K while Marian was paid €570K through their companies - the heyday of RTE's "self-employment" wheeze which has cost RTE about three times more than all these salaries put together.

Remember, Pat (like Gaybo before him) was doing 5 mornings a week on radio plus the Late Late, plus a plethora of specials e.g. political debates, so he should have been on about 20 times Marian especially as advertising on the Late Late was earning about 10 times more for RTE compared to Marian with her two weekend chats on the radio. Plus Pat proved his commercial value in moving to NewsTalk.

There were ructions when these numbers were released because the banks had blown up and salaries were being cut across the public sector. It was really the beginning of RTE's current troubles. Every DG since has been on the back foot, promising reforms while sinking further into debt.

https://www.rte.ie/documents/about/top_pay_2007_2008.pdf

But if your employer has contrived to go bust and is going cap in hand to the Government, although it was granted a "licence to print money" through advertising and it charges every household in the country €160 a year whether or not anyone wants its output, and it has sold off prime real estate that was meant for public services, don't be surprised if people get pissed off with you for pocketing that dosh!