PATRICK KIELTY’S SALARY as the new host of The Late Late Show could be revealed as early as tomorrow or Monday.
The focus on the new host’s pay comes as RTÉ board chair Siun Ní Raghallaigh publicly questioned how contracts are negotiated.
Kielty is set to take over as host of the Late Late from September having been selected to replace Ryan Tubridy after the latter’s 14 year stint in the hot seat.
Tubridy became RTÉ’s top earning presenter in that time and the revelation that his salary has been understated for years has prompted the current RTÉ pay controversy.
Tubridy’s annual earnings published by RTÉ between the years 2017-2022 ranged from €440,000-€491,667 but a review carried out by Grant Thornton found that his annual earnings from RTÉ in those years actually ranged from €511,667-€545,000.
It was revealed during yesterday’s Oireachtas Media Committee hearing that Kielty’s salary as the new host has been agreed with the comedian, but that it has not yet come before the audit and remuneration committee of the RTÉ board.
RTÉ’s Interim Deputy Director-General Adrian Lynch said the deal was negotiated by Chief Financial Officer Richard Collins with input from legal advisors.
Collins said he has “made the chair of the board aware of the deal”.
Asked by committee chair Niamh Smyth TD if it would be possible for the deal to be published, Lynch said this would be possible if Kielty agreed to its publication.
Smyth said that if this is the case “there is no reason this committee cannot be fully informed” about this salary “as early as Friday evening or Monday morning”
Lynch agreed that this is a fair assumption “if Mr. Kielty is open to that”.
RTÉ News is reporting that Kielty has expressed his wish that the salary be made public once it goes through the appropriate processes and comes before the remuneration committee.
RTÉ publishes the salaries of its top 10 earners on an annual basis but the published figures relate to two years previous, not the current year.
Contracts
Also during yesterday’s committee hearing, RTÉ board chair Siun Ni Raghallaigh expressed a level of dissatisfaction with how contracts for some of the broadcaster’s top stars are negotiated.
RTÉ is “bidding against itself” in the fees it pays its highest earners, she said.
Ní Raghallaigh is not involved in the day-to-day running of the broadcaster and said that pay negotiations are “part of the culture” .
“I said it earlier that my opinion is that RTÉ is bidding against itself in the market and that’s part of the culture as well, maybe that applied at some point in time, but that’s not the way the market is working – I think we all know that,” she said.
And therefore the market will decide, but RTÉ has to act in relation to that and identify the influence that they have in the marketplace in that sense, and so that in itself would determine the level in the market.
Ray D’Arcy is RTÉ’s second highest earner on followed by Liveline’s Joe Duffy and radio presenter Claire Byrne.
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