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JOE DUFFY HAS defended the high wages earned by top RTÉ presenters, saying they were agreed in “fair and square” negotiations.
The Liveline host said he had already agreed to take a further pay cut, and realised that “there has to be changes made” if RTÉ is to remain viable.
“We’re all going to have to work very much harder,” he told TV3′s Midweek. “These are difficult times for everyone, difficult times for RTE, and there has to be changes made.”
But he defended the substantial fees earned by the broadcaster’s top stars. Asked about the annual pay of more than €900,000 formerly enjoyed by Pat Kenny, Duffy said the fee had been agreed in commercial negotiations:
Pat didn’t go in and defraud anyone of the money, he went in and I presume negotiated the money. He got it fair and square, whatever way he did it. And RTE will deal with it now in whatever way they want to deal with it.
He acknowledged that there was a public appetite for the fees to be cut. Earlier this week, RTÉ’s director general Noel Curran said that top presenters could see their pay reduced by up to 30 per cent – even if some chose to jump ship to other stations.
Duffy said he had already agreed to that level of pay reduction, and it had come into effect on October 1.
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For a Social Science graduate, Joe Duffy shows little awareness of how hollow his justifications of his salary will ring with the many struggling citizens in our increasingly unequal society, showed taxes make him a rich man. The spread of street protests around the western world should show people on the elite, the 1% who own 99% of the wealth, that there comes a time when the majority will realise that the system no longer serves them.
Where did you find the statistic that 1% own 99% of the wealth?
Here is a link to support your statement on the 1%
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228354.500-revealed–the-capitalist-network-that-runs-the-world.html
Why is it so important that he says where he found that statistic Kevin?
Because otherwise he’s talking sh*te just like the 4% in the world who talk 85% of the bullsh*t without anything to back it up
Surely making up random facts like that doesnt do anybody any good, but if it was true I was interested in reading the article.
OR it’s a handy way of deflecting the argument away from the actual topic. x% own y% of the wealth. The y number is much much bigger than the x one. Fact. Now, back to Dur Durfy.
Joe Duffy is not a social science graduate, he is a social work graduate. There is a difference.
In fairness the point is dead when you quote stuff that is obviously not true.
If Joe Duffy and Gay Byrne are the unofficial fathers of this Nation and Miriam O’Callaghan is the unofficial mother of this Nation, i would rather be an orphan of this Nation
Hey, Duffy – why don’t you give yourself a call and talk about it.
Good luck to any of those RTE humps trying to negotiate salaries like their present ones with other broadcasters! They’d be laughed out the door!!!
Totally agree, and frankly it’s disgusting that Duffy can sit there originally on over €400,000 per year for a 75min show 5 times a week (and 12 weeks holidays) and try to defend it whilst thousands emigrate and more lose jobs each day. And to top it all his feckin show preys on all this misery.
Why doesn’t he just keep his trap shut and count his blessing for now.
Absolutely Mick…. BBc are cutting their operations by more than 30%. I’d love to know who these competitors are that Curran was talking about…
He is entitled to negotiate his salary. The persons responsible for the farce of these wages are the RTE staff who negotiate on behalf of the Irish Tax payer. Its time to substantially reduce wages in line with private broadcasters or let them go elsewhere.
fact is most of these RTE celebrities wouldn’t get a job anywhere else at those figures
And most wouldn’t get a job anywhere else full stop.
And that’s the truth. So called “man of the people” earning an enormous salary for what ? Talking rubbish. Paying a licence fee to RTE is the one bill I detest “having to” pay for.
Let the RTE "talent" off into the wilds to get a new job. See if they can negotiate a good salary with BBC or UTV Etc. a joke is what it is!
If turbidy sat beside you. In a pub you would ask the barman to put him out for boredom
Just once I’d like to see one of these presenters be allowed “jump ship” and see how they get on at a commercial station where you have to maintain standards as there are several other people who will be put in your job if you don’t. I certainly think things will run just as smoothly at RTE if Duffy were to go, that’s for sure.
They did remember Marty Whelan . when he left and went to Century It went broke and RTE gladly took marty back into the family . He is now working on Lyric.
Ah good old Lyric,
You tune in to hear abit of Chopin and you get George Hamilton telling you about his memories of Italia 90….Only in Ireland!
What does he get paid for. All he does is let octogenarians rant on his show and he just nods along with his trademark "yeah …. Yeah….ok…..yeah" and he gets paid six figures for it. At least the heads of semi states were actually doing something. This man sickens me.
If I was running the national broadcaster in get my firing stick out. I’d also pull out my reprogramming wand and my common sense boxing glove.
While RTE is in substantial receipt of State funds, nobody in RTE should earn more than the President.
the govt salery cap of 250k should apply to r.t.e. as it is part funded by the govt through the licence fee, either that or scrap the t.v. licence and let r.t.e. earn its money like the independant channals have too. best post this week was “r.t.e.= really terrible entertainment, cant remember who posted it though.
Wouldn’t it be great if Martin McGuinness got in? They’d all have to live on €30,000 a year, if they were to be paid the same as the President. That would bring them all down to planet earth fairly rapidly.
That’s a great idea. Imagine if Martin mcGuinnes got in. They’d have to live on €30,000 per annum. They’d soon come back to earth.
900k ??? Damn right they should take a pay cut! About 850k worth
I was just thinking that Pat Kenny gets paid almost a million a year and there is probably only about half a million tv licences (assumption). So he’s getting about two euro out of every tv licence. It beggars belief!
Be a good boy Joe and agree with RTE and they will still let you have an obscene salary . Pathetic hypocrite looking after his own skin.
It’s the Kenny Salary that gets me the most nearly 1million that would be nearly 20 ,000 a week if my sums are right That type of money is vulgar and morally wrong
especially licence and taxpayers money in these times
Hey Joe, let’s have a "phone in" about it.
Best post in weeks!!
In the past it was in RTE executive’s interest to keep the ‘talent’ wages high – it meant that they themselves could have higher wages without it seeming crazy, it flew under the radar.
You nailed it. It’s not just RET though this phenomena rages throughout everywhere that’s underpinned by money confiscated from the ordinary hard working public. Anywhere you care to look in this sector you’ll have one class of Apparatchik caving into the insane demands of another class of Apparatchik. So much the better to cave in because that allows them an insanely high point of comparison when it comes times to “negotiate” their own lavish compensation packages. They should sell RTE off to the highest bidder, assuming one can be found, or failing that simply shut the whole place down. It’s intolerable that this bunch of smug chancers can get away with dipping into the pockets of almost every household in the state.
Everything else is being privatised, why not RTE?
Joe Duffy is a smarmy oily hypocrite with his “yes pet” “God bless” pretend empathy while he runs all the way to the bank with his big fat paycheck.Disgusting. #RTE
I have triplets you know…
I’m no fan of Joe (still missing Marian), but what he’s actually saying there is that RTE are a shower of fools – Pat and the rest negotiated these insane salaries, but it was RTE that agreed to pay them. Who wouldn’t ask their employer for several hundred grand if they thought for one instant that they were stupid enough to agree?
He’s sort of avoiding the issue. Perhaps Pap Kenny et al did fairly negotiate their current salaries.
The question as to whether they are worth the salaries has successfully been dodged by Duffy.
RTE should drop their wages by 75% and then we’ll see how their job hunts go.
Well I am glad only RTE employees had a negotiated contract. Everyone else, of course, can take more cuts because they obviously do not have a negotiated contract.
Do you think for one second that if Pat Kenny or any of those self-seving presenters went to TV3 and aksed for those sort of Salaries, they would have got them? Give us a break Joe, and take your Ivory Tower, we deserve the money attitude with you.
The RTE bosses paid themselves and their pets (presenters) whatever they wanted, as it was only OUR money. They are the same as the establishment Government parties … FF/FG/Labour, al looking out for their own pockets …. USE YOUR VOTES. Take down the establishment.
McGuinness challanged their salaries publicly 3 weeks ago, and we saw what Miriam O’Callaghand and Pat Kenny did to McGuinness in response. These FINANCIAL terrorists need to berooted from our socitey
sack joes ass and replace him with whoever answers the phone at reception…..
You don’t get paid what you are worth, you get paid wht you negotiate….
Clontarf
Do you know what would solve this problem while at the same time save everybody from having to pay a licence fee?
Privatising RTÉ.
These telephone number salaries are ridiculous. Maybe They should be put on a minimal salary and paid a percentage based on their listenrship. If they can keep their ratings high then they get paid in relation to that. But what’s wrong here is these RTE divas think they are untouchable and so don’t give a sh1te what drivel they spill out over the national airwaves. Since the introduction of independent radio stations truth is their numbers have declined dramatically but their wages have soared!!!
Maybe Joe should ply his trade elsewhere to gauge his real worth. Radio Norwich are always looking for new talent, AHA!
I can see it there on the top of me screen…..he’s not bringing sexy back however,just some of his wages
He’s very simply defecting. It doesn’t matter that the negotation was totally above board or ‘fair and square’, the fact of the matter is that the RTE negotiators went in to the negotiation without the tax payers best interests at heart, and without any interest in getting value for money. With a presumed audience of maybe 2 million regular viewers for RTE (I mean not including the people that just tune in for the news and weather), do we really call 900k an acceptable figure?
75% of the licence money should go to TG4. RTE can then sink or swim.
The problem is we all get hung up on individuals. The problem lies in the system and the philosophy of greed behind it. How much are you worth? As much as “the market” will pay you. The question “how can I justify what I get compared to what I need?” is never asked. There is no moral compass guiding us just the magnetism of greed.
Ok sorry for the rant, I’ll piss of to an ashram now right after I’ve sold all my worldly possesions,..
If RTE didn’t pay their top bods so much we might get more variety and diversity. Right now we get Miriam all the time, Pat all the time, Charlie bird all the time, etc…
We certainly don’t get Made Marion all the time though, we get her for about ten weeks a year, and pay her half a million.
I’m sick of RTE, it is inward looking, provincial, panders to whoever is in power at the time, inefficient, arrogant, and not fit for purpose.
Joe is worth every penny.
When I hear that Joe Duffy fella trying to justify his and other big fat fees, it makes my blood boil. The cheek of him to head up a show, where some of the saddest stories are aired and teased out, with no consideration for the person on the end of the line. The soppier and sadder the story the better for Joe, so long as it makes a good show, that’s the bottom line. Talk to Joe is right – a chancer if there was ever one !
Definitely hard times for everyone. Seeing as this wonderful country won’t give me a job, and won’t offer me a penny in welfare, I have to seek out my own work (which is fine by me!) – right now I’m taking in less than â
It beggars belief that Joe Duffy and a few others are being dumped on with such venom. One would imagine from some posts that they were responsible for all ills in the country. As i understand it, all these people have agreed salary reductions. To put matters in perspective, AIB will probably receive 20 bn and Anglo 28 bn from the taxpayer. The real problem is with the public sector pay bill. There are too many employed for such a small population and too much duplication. On Vincent Browne last night, there was a fire officer. He gave a brief comparison between numbers of senior posts in the North and in the Republic, and the Republic seems to have a hell of a lot more. Since the mid nineties governments went mad creating more and more bureaucratic categories and associated career ladders. The result is huge replication of posts in local authorities, community enterprise boards, HSE offices, third level institutes, etc. The actual percentage of these posts that contribute to growth is a mystery to me, and many people in business. The government doesn’t want to confront this wastage, hence Croke Park Deal. But the cost of hanging on to so many is bought at the price of reducing the salaries and living standards of most. So those who are surplus, and possibly useless, are retained and the good ones have their salaries cut to keep the drones in their offices. Nuts.
“It beggars belief that Joe Duffy and a few others are being dumped on with such venom. One would imagine from some posts that they were responsible for all ills in the country.”
Well actually you can make a case that they are responsible for much of it. They’re in receipt of money which can not and never could be commercially justified. They get that money because the government allow them to get that money and he who pays the piper….
Irish broadcast journalism is a fat bloated wreck kept afloat with bribes paid for by robbing the public.So don’t wonder too hard to yourself as to why, easy targets aside, RTE current affairs sat on their fat arses while Bertie and Co. robbed us blind.
I’ve often wondered why this is not being corrected, and I think it is at least partly because so many people are related/married/friends with government workers of one sort or another.
It’s amusing to hear mid- and high-level workers justify their salaries all the same. At this stage I think the only way forward is a total and painful reset of the economy, and that is only going to happen if the state is prevented from borrowing.
@ Tom, I couldn’t agree more. Resetting this nepotist based economy is a must. As for any pain endured during the process? that will only happen to the parasitic classes benefitting from this inequality…….. Impoverishment, negative equity, the worries and the fears of the vast majority is a real current pain………..
Tom, you got it spot on. Remember the rage from Eamon Gilmore when that dude who was stepping down from the IMF said the issue of the Public Sector wage bill still hadn’t been properly addressed. Gilmore said it wasn’t helpful when “people with agendas” made comments like that. The fact of the matter is that the IMF’s agenda is clear, getting paid back is their agenda. What’s Gilmore’s agenda? Keeping his base in clover at the expense of everyone else. I’m with the IMF dude on this because not to be is to be resigned to having more of it myself.
Oh and here’s something you never hear from any politician from any party. The shaggin Dail is too big, way too big. 160 or so members for a population of 4 million. That’s utter madness. Holland has a population of 16 million and a parliament with about 75 members. Quite frankly the type of reform this country needs is something I can’t see any party within being willing to administer. It’s tempting to say that this could be taken care of if strict enough terms were placed on any further credit but we know what’ll happen then, the political and public sector trade union classes will see to it that everyone else is made wear the sackcloth while they continue to leech the life from the economy. There are major systemic problems in Ireland I literally don’t know how it’s even possible to imagine them being addressed.
@JSLeFanu
A sharp re-adjustment is preferable to a drawn out decline – and that could still happen. It’s not just the public sector – there are too many self-regulating professions sheltered from competition.
I meet people all the time who know what’s going on, but collectively nothing gets done. And we have a bullshit-spouting goon like Sean Gallagher mis-representing himself as an entrepreneur and topping opinion polls. If I was cynical (and I am) I would say he is the perfect representative for much of the electorate – a rent-seeking milk-the-system chancer that apparently believes his own positive-thinking nonsense. And Bertie before that…
While I sympathize with the anger of the Occupy Wall/Dame St., I don’t want to replace the system – I just want it to be managed competently.
I want to live in a liberal democracy, paying my taxes in return for decent services and social solidarity. Will that ever happen here?
Tom, I’m with you all the way on that, every bit of it. You’re right about the self regulating professions too, I left them off my hit list above simply because I was rushing and didn’t have time to include each and every sector whole live fat by sucking the lifeblood from everyone else.
Is ANYBODY in this country aware of the paycut that was applied to public sector pay in January 2010?!
@sara
Of course, and this was difficult for the lowest pay grades. I refer you to Adam magari’s post above for some reasons for the ire at govt workers.
dont know the numbers jimbob ,but after reading this article i feel like telling r.t.e. to shove it up their arse!
Unfortunately Michael Freeman keeps deleting my comments. He does love censoring comments on this site.
Just have a little thought on what JR is getting… and he is well by his sell by date
6 mill a year at BBC. More at ITV
JR gets paid by a commercial station .and attracts about 10 times the Audeiance and revenue stream
RTE is kept alive solely on the back of public money .
I have no problem with TV3 paying Joe,Pat,Marion or anyone else that kind of money but it does piss me off when I am asked to pay them . Lotso of young talent out there would love the break and do it for a fraction of what these rather elderly stars get. I watched the recent soccer commentry I dont think there was one person under 70 on the panel …. ITALIA 90 is well gone and we need to move on
Anyone who thinks that getting people to talk on the air, and steering the conversation in such a way that it frequently becomes tomorrow’s headlines, is a job anyone could do is nuts – Joe’s a very skilled host, however much his show isn’t to my own tastes.
Problem is that his (and others’) salary should be linked to advertising revenues for his slots – a basic wage (but a decent one, taking account of his talent and longevity) reflecting the contribution of the license payer. topped up with a bonus figure based on revenue generated. This rewards him fairly for the quality of his work, and ensures that the best will be driving themselves to get, and hang on to, the prime slots.
The BBC often get criticised for the squandering their licence fee on huge budgets (and actor/presenter salaries) for things like Dr. Who, Eastenders and wildlife shows – however, these shows are sold on to foreign markets and bring in many times their costs, subsidising the rest of the BBC’s output even without advertising. Do Joe, Pat and even the divine Marian bring in significantly more than they cost, and thus subsidise anything?
Joe a very skilled host?
He was Gaybo’s gofer (in much the same way as Tubridy was Ryan’s), and when massing large crowds to cheer every time Gaybo deigned to address them on the airwaves, was if anything, working above his skillset.
A skilled host? He operates what is ostensibly an open forum driven by the public with rigid editorial control (in that respect Gay, who oversaw everything he broadcast, would be proud), where he sets the agenda, screens the “callers” who are often contacted by RTE to portray a majority view, rather than the other way around, and when he invariably comes across someone he disagrees with, treats them with rudeness, contempt, and even less respect than he does in the normal course of events, where he cuts people off, talks over them, and generally acts like the shaved ape that he is.
I watched the interview in question and I didn’t take Joe duffys remarks the way the article appears to present it. He made it clear that he himself has complied with all the pay cuts and the RTE statement was not referring to him. When pushed about others he then made the comments about them agreeing these wage packages with management.
It’s a tool for governments to voice their views
Tom, great comment totally agree…more than just the public service thats bloated.
Re other comments wouldn’t agree with privatizing rte, still think much of the home grown tv is quality. The Salary issue is a no brainer though, if the big names were offered a 50% cut or the door they would take it with bells on.
@phil
I don’t think RTE should be privatized either – we need to have a public service broadcaster. The problem is RTE is not fulfilling that role. It needs to be downsized to one TV channel and a couple of talk radio stations, focusing exclusively on PSB. Ban advertising completely and quit making (I mean, commissioning) third-rate copies of British popular programming. When I first came back here I had to laugh at the size of the RTE car park – I mean, just how many people are required to run the place?
Joe Duffy mmm any one could do that job of chatting on radio and then to get that exuberant amount of money ESP for radio. I’d say we will have to ring Joe to have a discussion on this all he does is talk the talk
in short: the people sanctioning these salaries are not worried where the dosh comes from- other peoples`money
Oh, geeze guys, I really feel sorry for you all, struggling away on those salaries.
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