A GROUP OF RTÉ journalists have said the broadcaster’s plan to cut the salaries of its highest earning presenters does not go far enough.

National Union of Journalist (NUJ) members working in RTÉ have called on management to slash the fees and salaries paid to top presenters and to managers.

A resolution, which described these presenters’ level of pay as “indefensible”, was overwhelmingly backed at a Dublin broadcasting branch on the RTÉ campus yesterday.

The branch said it believes that it is “now more than ever indefensible that RTÉ continues to pay exorbitant salaries of up to close to half a million euro to a small number of people in this organisation”.

“We understand the public anger at this and believe that that anger is justified.”

The group said the broadcaster’s current proposal to cut 15% off payments to its top contracted presenters “does not go far enough”. It called on RTÉ to immediately reduce salaries of top earners so that no one in the organisation earns more than the top civil service salary of €207,000.

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There is a similar law in the Netherlands which stops anyone in the public or semi-public sector from earning more than €187,000 by pegging all top salaries to that of the country’s Prime Minister.

“We believe this would be an important first step towards addressing the valid concerns felt by the public who we serve,” the group said.