126 people in RTE paid over €100k, 25 more than in 2015
IT HAS been in financial crisis since 2015 – but you wouldn’t be able to tell that by looking at the upward curve of RTÉ staff’s salaries over the past four years.
Figures released to the Irish Mail on Sunday under the Freedom of Information Act show that in 2018, 126 people in RTÉ were paid over €100,000 – with 27 of these paid between €150,000 and €250,000.
This compares with 101 people earning over €100,000 in 2015 – 24 of whom were paid in the top bracket between €150,000 and €250,000.
Crucially, this figure does not include the salaries of so-called top talent like Ryan Tubridy who earned just under half a million in the last published figures, and Ray Darcy who earned approximately €450,000.
The average salary of an RTÉ employee has jumped almost €3,000 in the past four years – years during which the national broadcaster lost a net €42million.
And although Director General, Dee Forbes continues to beg for another increase in the license fee, the average salary at RTÉ is now almost €22,000 higher than the average national salary of €38,845.
Despite being forced to sell parts of its Montrose campus, the semistate’s average salary increased by €2,954 from 2015 to 2018 – increasing from €57,564 to €60,518. When pension contributions are included, each employee now costs RTÉ an average of €75,000, excluding PRSI.
The figures – which RTÉ does not include in its well-publicised annual report – reveal that 542 employees, more than a third of the full-time workforce of 1,565, were paid between €60,000 and €80,000 last year.
And one-sixth of the workforce were paid more than €80,000. A similar number was paid less than €40,000 – but most of these were part-time workers.
In 2015, the proportion of earners over €100,000 was five percent – or one in 20 employees.
In the 2018 figures, this rose to seven percent - or one in 14 employees.
This breakdown of salaries is not included in the RTÉ’s annual reports but since 2015, the broadcaster says it has published them yearly on its website.
However, this year, they were not published until an FOI request was made by MoS. The national broadcaster updated its website on Thursday to replace the 2017 figures with the 2018 figures, according to a spokesman.
When the MoS asked if we could have a copy of 2016 and 2017 figures, we were told the publiclyfunded RTÉ press office did not `have them to hand’.
Earlier this year, Ms Forbes – who joined RTÉ midway through 2016 – said the high salaries of the top ten presenters would have to be reviewed.
`The situation we find ourselves in is a different place to the time these contracts were put in place.
`I am looking at those and am committed to look at them going forward.’
But RTÉ insiders say the salaries of top and middle management must also be reviewed if the organisation is to reform. `It’s literally a case of too many cooks,’ one newsroom journalist told MoS. `Why do we need so many managers? The answer is we don’t.’ The release of these latest figures comes a month after the MoS revealed that the broadcaster is planning to sell its Cork City Centre studios at Father Mathew Street in a bid to raise between `€1million and €1.5 million. The broadcaster also plans to sell off another pocket of land at its Montrose complex. However, property experts have already warned that the land will likely not fetch as much as in 2017 when Cairn Homes paid €107.5million for 8.64 acres. Meanwhile, staff at the beleaguered national broadcaster are preparing for a major announcement of swingeing cuts, including jobs losses later this month. An RTÉ spokesperson confirmed the details of a `major financial review’ would be delivered to staff this month.
‘One third of workforce are paid €60k-€80k’ ‘Why do we need so many managers?’