And that doesn’t include the outside contractors

THE newly retired Seán O’Rourke along with Bryan Dobson and Mary Wilson were the only three RTÉ staff members to appear in the most recent top ten bestpaid RTÉ presenters’ list.

Many of the broadcaster’s most highprofile presenters are not RTÉ staff but are independent contractors.

They include: Claire Byrne; Miriam O’Callaghan; Ryan Tubridy; Joe Duffy and Ray D’Arcy. Many of those have dominated the list of the top ten presenters in terms of pay.

The most recent list was published over 18 months ago in December 2018.

RTÉ could not say when the next annual list will be published.

But, we do know that the broadcaster’s top talent have agreed to a 15% pay cut in response to the financial troubles RTÉ finds itself in.

The last published figures show that the best-paid staff member, Seán O’Rourke received €306,964 in 2016. He retired in May of this year.

The next best-paid staff member was Bryan Dobson, who received €198,146 in 2018, and the Morning Ireland co-presenter was followed by Drive Time’s Mary Wilson, who received €185,679.

Unlike the independent contractors who

High earners: O’Callaghan and Tubridy must fund their own pensions, staff members benefit from RTÉ’s pension scheme and pension contributions from the station.

The most recent accounts for RTÉ show that Director General, Dee Forbes, is paid a salary of €250,000, a €25,000 car allowance and pension contributions of €63,000 – bringing her total remuneration package to €338,000 for 2018.

According to the most recent published list, the highest-paid presenter for 2016 was Ryan Tubridy, who received €495,000 for his Late Late Show and Radio 1 work.