Move comes after bosses impose salary cap
Duffy is ‘not seeking to renew contract with RTE’ Eileen is on the hunt for new Dancing With The Stars talent
casualty of Mr Bakhurst’s new salary cap regime of €250,000, where the new boss announced top talent will not earn more than the director general.
Mr Bakhurst previously told us he understands his new policy could risk losing some of the station’s stars.
He said: “But there are not that many who are above that salary cap so we have to deal when their
contracts come up, which we will do. They’re paid a lot of money because they have been paid historically a lot of money because they are extremely good.
“That is what the audience deserves and of course it is a danger.
“But I think on the other hand, the audience expects that we show that we are getting real value for licence fee payers.
“I knew high salaries for presenters – and it is the same at the BBC – has
FORMER RTE newsreader Eileen Dunne has revealed she asked Bryan Dobson to sign up for next year’s Dancing With The Stars.
Dobson announced he is set to retire in April after 37 years.
Eileen – who retired from reading the Nine O’clock News in 2022 after 42 always been an issue for some of our audience.”
The RTE top earners list last week showed a massive drop to Claire Byrne’s salary after she gave up her TV show Claire Byrne Live.
She was paid €320,833 in 2022, down from the €350,000 she earned the year before.
While going public on her pay last summer, Byrne revealed she is now receiving €280,000 for her Today radio years – said she sent Dobson a text to see if he would sign up for the show as soon as she heard he was stepping down.
She said: “I’m not going to tell you [what he wrote back].”
But the 65-year-old confirmed her former colleague and pal Anne Doyle will “categorically show, with a separate €25,000 fee for her quiz show, Ireland’s Smartest.
Confirming she was in the top 10 list, Byrne told listeners last week: “I just want to be clear with people because, as I previously said when I was briefly doing this show and the television show, I was paid €350,000.”
It also emerged Primetime presenter Miriam O’callaghan earned €263,000. not” sign up for the show. Eileen said: “She just won’t do it. I know she won’t.
“She always said she would never do it. I’d be amazed if she did it.”
But Eileen added she is “very glad” she signed up after being given advice in her pre-retirement course to try new things.
Garda with breathalyser