Laois native Claire Byrne features in RTÉ's list of highest-paid presenters

Laois native Claire Byrne has maintained her status as one of RTÉ's highest-paid presenters, new figures have confirmed.

RTÉ has published the earnings for its ten highest-paid presenters in 2022, along with the restated earnings for 2021.

Ryan Tubridy, the former Late Late Show host and Radio 1 presenter, tops the list at €515,000 for 2022 while Joe Duffy and Claire Byrne were the only other presenters who were paid more than €300,000.

Six of those named in the Top 10 are independent contractors while four are RTÉ employees.

In the case of Ms Byrne, who is originally from Mountrath, her company (Derrough Media Ltd) was paid €320,833 by RTÉ in 2022 down from €350,000 in 2021.

Having joined RTÉ in 2010, she currently presents Today with Claire each weekday on RTÉ Radio 1. She has previously worked on several television programmes for the national broadcaster including Prime Time and Claire Byrne Live.

Last year, she hosted the Sunday night quiz show Ireland's Smartest.

The publication of the latest RTÉ figures follows the publication, in February 2023, of earnings for the national broadcaster's highest-paid presenters in 2020 and 2021, and the correction of the public record in relation to the information RTÉ previously provided regarding Ryan Tubridy’s earnings from RTÉ during the period 2017-2022.

RTÉ says the total amount of money paid to its highest-earning presenters represents less than 1% of RTÉ’s total operating costs.

RTÉ employee remuneration in the table (above) represents salaries, employer pension contribution and related benefits.

Contractor remuneration represents fees payable directly by RTÉ for services provided to RTÉ only in 2022 and excluding VAT; it does not include fees that may have been paid by independent production companies for programming or content commissioned by RTÉ.

RTÉ has also pointed out that contractors do not earn salaries and the broadcaster does not make any pension contribution on their behalf.

Today’s new list of the top 10 salaries at @rte only serves to highlight the inequality of wage levels across all staff in the company & underlines the need for @kevinbakhurst to deliver on his pledge to reduce all the high contractor costs. Licence payers want it done now #RTE

— Ciaran Mullooly (@ciaranmullooly) January 29, 2024

Commenting following the publication of the figures, RTÉ Deputy Director-General, Adrian Lynch said: “As previously confirmed by (director general) Kevin Bakhurst, going forward, details of RTÉ’s highest paid presenters will be published annually as part of RTÉ’s Annual Report starting with RTÉ’s 2023 Annual Report which will be published later this year.

"While RTÉ has committed to reducing the cost of its highest paid presenters to ensure that no contractors or employees will earn more than the director-general, our presenters play an important role in RTÉ’s provision of vital news, information and entertainment to audiences right across the country and enable us to generate commercial revenue which is essential to fund RTÉ’s public services.”