Hoz that for a show

HOZIER’S worshipping Irish fans were happily taken to church at a sold-out Dublin’s 3Arena tonight.

The first of his two homecoming shows was warmly received as the Wicklow rocker played hits from his second album Wasteland, Baby!

Fans sang along with every word of his signature numbers with his intricate finger picking guitar style and powerful vocals staying strong from the beginning of his set until the very end.

Hozier, 29, opened with Nina Cried Power, brooding and bathed in red light as the band came on stage. He said: “How you doing this fine evening Dublin?

“It is an immeasurable pleasure to play here for the first time. Dublin are the loudest audience in the world.”

And the delighted crowd surely lived it up its reputation.

Dee Forbes said Montrose’s presenters have a difficult job that not everyone can do.

She was addressing a Dail committee hours after Communications Minister Richard Bruton announced the State will plough €50million into the station – just €10million less than the €60million the broadcaster says it has to cut between now and 2022.

RTE wants to slash its workforce by 200 as one of a series of measures to tackle its financial crisis.

Salaries for the 10 highest paid presenters, who mainly work as contractors rather than staff, added up to €3million in 2016 – by contrast Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is paid €200,000 per year.

RTE has pledged to reduce the fees paid to their top contracted on-air presenters by 15%, which it said is in addition to cuts of over 30% agreed in previous years. Ms Forbes told the Oireachtas communications committee yesterday: “The role of our presenters is multi-faceted.

“They present several shows depending on the individual but I think it’s important to say that they’re very important to RTE and very important to the messages that they have to deliver on a regular basis. “I understand why this can be an issue and a topic for conversation among the public, but the role of presenting a show and being a broadcaster can be a difficult one and it’s not something that anybody can do despite sometimes what the public think.”

Ms Forbes said they have negotiated a pay cut with one of its contractors by 15% and the rest of the pay negotiations are ongoing.

Earlier Mr Bruton denied caving in to demands from RTE by allocating an extra €10million-a-year in State funding for five years.

He said: “What we have done is met them half-way.”

How many thousand euro Taoiseach Leo Varadkar earns a year

Reduction in pay to top earners.. on top of 30% cut in previous years