Pay for the top 10 earners at RTÉ fell by around a sixth during in 2020 and 2021 as compensation for the national broadcaster's best-paid broadcasters largely declined during the pandemic.
Payments to Tuttle Productions, the company set up by Ryan Tubridy, decreased from €495,000 in 2019 to €466,250 in 2020 and €440,000 in 2021, although the Late Late Show presenter remained the company's to earner in both years.
Ray Darcy earned €305,000 in both years through his firm What Next Productions, down from €450,000 in 2019. The pay cut of close to a third saw him drop down the list, from second to third in 2020 and to fourth in 2021.
Liveline's Joe Duffy was paid €360,650 and €351,000 through his Cladaghgreen Ltd company in 2020 and 2021, down from €392,494 in 2019, which amounts to a 10.6% cut over two years, but not enough to stop him from rising to second.
The late Marian Finucane did not appear on following her death in early 2020 and Sean O'Rourke, fifth in 2019, also didn't appear after earning a salary of €327,988 prior to the pandemic
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O'Rourke stepped down from Today with Sean O'Rourke in mid-2020, but a planned return to television was delayed by his involvement in the Golfgate controversy that summer.
Claire Byrne who became the permanent host of the mid-morning Radio 1 current affairs programme saw her compensation package, paid through Derrough Media Ltd, swell from €250,000 to €282,917 in 2020 and €350,000 in 2021, lifting her to third place.
Miriam O'Callaghan's pay fell 17.7% from €320,000 to €263,500, although she rose to fifth in the absence of Finucane and O'Rourke. Brendan O'Connor's (sixth) pay also increased from €220,000 in 2019 to €238,753 and then €245,004.
News at One present Bryan Dobson (seventh) was paid €217,332 in 2020 before returning to his 2019 salary of €209,282 the following year. Mary Wilson (eighth) followed a similar pattern with pay of €204,537 in 2020 and €196,961 in 2021.
RTÉ Sport presenter Darragh Maloney was ninth in both years, earning €190,804 in 2020 and €183,738 in 2021, and the top 10 was rounded out first by Áine Lawlor (€183,662 in 2020) and then George Lee (€179,131).
Overall, the combined pay of the top 10 earners fell from €3.22m in 2019 to more than €2.71m in 2020 (-16%) and €2.72m in 2021 (-15%).
"Today we are publishing the fees paid to RTÉ's highest-paid presenters for 2020 and 2021, which confirms a total reduction of more than 15%," said Dee Forbes, director-general of RTÉ.
"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.
"We are aware that the fees of high-profile presenters attract considerable public interest. Over the past 15 years RTÉ has reduced these fees by c. 40%. We continue to keep them under review."
Ryan Tubridy (left) and Claire Byrne. (Pic: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie)
