RTE Salaries

Tea drinker

The trouble is Benedict, Irish people didn't care as long as they misunderstood debt as wealth and felt quids in themselves.
No one wanted to listen to the moaners talking about real problems. Now that the trough is getting low you can't shut them up.
Better late than never. In the meantime we have the lads from Irish Medical Organisation (fees double UK), Aer Rianta and other semi-states running off into the sunset with world leading pensions. Enough to get their families through several generations of elevated wealth. That's fair isn't it ;-) It's not like anyone has to actully pay the piper?

Benedict

A lot of the problem is the public perception that there is not fair play. I'm not a big fan of S/F's Mary Lou, but to give her credit, she recently demanded to know why Brendan Howlin did not even mention politicians' obscene pensions and allowances when he was shedding tears of desperation about where he would find money if C/P 2 was rejected. It seems that there are some untouchable "sacred cows" in our society. If we ask why a TD gets extra pay for showing up at work, we're whiners. If we ask why Joe D gets more pay per minute than an industrial worker gets in a full hour, we're having a "rant". But that is where the dissatisfaction is coming from. And it has a lot to do with why the C/P 2 was rejected!

NIMAN

Had to laugh at RTEs latest advert to try to get us to pay our TV licences, where they say that for every €1 they get in they spend €2.

And they wonder why they are in debt to their eyeballs!!:rolleyes:


Memo to their boss, here's an idea, for every Euro you receive, why not spend a Euro, see how that works out.

Solair

Their programmes should be out out to tender every 4 years if the presenter costs more than say €100,000 for a full time show with a large audience.

Many of them are self employed contractors anyway.

NIMAN

Since RTE are funded by the State and the taxpayer, and since the Gov is telling us all we have to accept all the cutbacks etc, does the Gov not have the power to TELL the bosses at RTE that from a certain date, or when contracts are up for renewal, that there can no longer be any RTE employee or contractor working for them, earning more than €x per year?

Solair

I suppose the difference is that RTE's not exchequer funded which makes it a bit trickier as it's only a drain on license fee payers.

We could be getting a lot better value for money though.

I'd like to see license fee reductions though, not endless increases. We have seen drops in the costs of all sorts of services, yet RTE's costs keep going up.

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There's something wrong with the tendering process though if it's either not being implemented or they're arriving at crazy high amounts.

I don't think TV3, Today FM, Newstalk or the local stations could afford those kinds of salaries nor are they paying them to anyone, and I'm not seeing huge evidence of Irish presenters going to the UK in some kind of mass exodus either.

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The other aspect, is that it's preventing new talent from getting on air too by squandering the funds on huge salaries for a bunch of existing people and reducing the possibility of new programmings emerging.

Also, by all accounts, RTE pays production staff and less well known presenters (especially in radio) quite poorly and they're often on very short contracts.
You'd think it would be trying to create a pool of long-term production and presentation talent, not just participating in slashing the cash on 'big' names.

Benedict

How does a nurse feel when she arrives home after a long day of trotting from one ward to the other, looking after the sick and the dying, when she can be told that the reward for her 8 hour day is the same as the reward given to a presenter for chatting on air for less than five minutes?

How does a pensioner on E230 per week feel, knowing that a presenter can have already earned more than E230 before the programme signature tune has finished?

People complain about the public service. But does anyone know of any public servant in this country who earns a four figure sum per hour? Or even per day?

It is just so unfair.

Tea drinker

Greek state TV closed down temporarily (?) in pursuit of cost savings, no chance we could lobby for the same cost savings here in Eire?

Greek state TV and radio were gradually pulled off the air late on Tuesday, hours after the government said it would temporarily close all state-run broadcasts and lay off about 2,500 workers as part of a cost-cutting drive demanded by the bailed-out country's international creditors.

TV and radio stations of the Hellenic Broadcasting Corporation, or ERT, were pulled off the air in several parts of the country from about 11pm (9pm BST), about an hour before the government said all signals would go dead, although satellite broadcasts continued.

The conservative-led government said ERT would reopen "as soon as possible" with a new, smaller workforce. It wasn't immediately clear how long that would take, and whether all stations would reopen.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jun/11/state-broadcaster-ert-shut-down-greece

Benedict

It's not really fair to blame RTE presenters for what they get. Very few people would say "no" if they were offered a four figure sum per HOUR for chatting on air. But equally, you can't blame the Irish people (who are ultimately paying the presenters out of their taxes and TV licence money), for being a little resentful.

Joe Duffy (and I'm not blaming him) is earning 300k for 8 hours a week, 40 weeks a year while plane loads of nurses are headed for Australia because we want to pay them 23k per annum for full time employment?

Even paying Joe (and he's not the highest paid) an outrageous 500 Euro per hour, the state would save more than 150k per annum. How many nurses or SNA's could you employ for that?

Our government is not so generous when it comes to carers' allowances for old and disabled citizens though!

maryishere

Benedict wrote: »

How does a nurse feel when she arrives home after a long day of trotting from one ward to the other, looking after the sick and the dying, when she can be told that the reward for her 8 hour day is the same as the reward given to a presenter for chatting on air for less than five minutes?

lots of private sector people work as hard if not harder than the nurse or semi-state worker, but they are not as well paid or have the same security or pension. Its very unfair.

ArmaniJeanss

Benedict wrote: »

Joe Duffy (and I'm not blaming him) is earning 300k for 8 hours a week

Honest to god, I actually agree with you that they are overpaid ; but this belief that the only actual work they do is for the X hours they are on the air is just terrible.

(Ironically it reduces the pay debate to the level of stupidity of many of their callers).

NIMAN

I've said it once and I'll say it again, it all comes down to how much balls the person at the head of RTE negotiating with these folk has.

The likes of Duffy, Kenny, Turbidy, Finucane, O'Callaghan, Mooney would struggle to get a job at a top TV or radio station anywhere else in the world, let alone one that pays what they earn now.

So I cannot understand why they aren't offered a capped salary, take-it-or-leave-it option when contract renewal comes up. I can guarantee nearly all would continue working for RTE for 50% of what they are earning now.

Personally I would give them 25% of what they are on now.

Benedict

ArmaniJeanss is correct to point out that the hours these people are on air is not the total amount of work that they do. Joe, for example, has to liaise with his researchers to find out who's going to phone in. So he arrives in RTE and he's told that Mrs O'Dea will be phoning in to complain about her child being taught in a pre-fab with broken windows. And after that, a man from Australia will be complaining that his hotel in Leitrim was without running water. Before a nurse goes to work, she has to ensure that her uniform is ironed. A teacher has to prepare classes. A taxi driver has to make sure his car has petrol It's called getting ready for work. But a taxi driver doesn't get a few hundred K per annum because he has to show up for work prepared for what he has to do?

Let's get real - how many hours prep does Joe do compared to Enda Kenny? Because he gets paid more!

We need to get real in this country.

Norwesterner

The tea lady who works in the RTE canteen earns more than the President of oil-rich Bolivia.
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Bolivian_President-Elect_takes_50%25_pay_cut_to_aid_social_programs

We've a long way to go before we wean people off the teet of the State

Benedict

There are civil servants earning well under 30k for full time jobs! That's not much of a "teat".
This thread was started by someone wondering why RTE presenters could be paid so much. Enda Kenny re-started the debate by describing the wages as "extraordinary". In one case, a presenter was paid about half a million a year for four hours broadcasting a week for 40 weeks a year. (That has since been reduced to 300k). And this is at a time when our Gardai are puttering around in bangers with 200k miles on the clock because they can't afford a proper fleet and the mobility allowances for disabled citizens is being slashed to save a few quid!

For the most part, the presenters are good at what they do - and some (like Pat Kenny) are terrific. But there are nurses and teachers and gardai and fire-fighters etc who are also very good at what they do - but they don't get a grand an hour because they're "good"?

What upsets people is the unfairness. While some sectors of our society (such as the disabled) are being crucified, other sectors are still being paid obscene salaries out of public funds.

Something is wrong somewhere.

Ash.J.Williams

Tubs must still be pulling in near half mill a year plus free promotion of his books, and yet both his shows have been dying purely because he is the presenter.

NIMAN

Time to hit 'Tubs' with a €100k per year "take it or leave it" contract when next up for renewal.

Benedict

The relevant minister needs to wade into RTE with a machete and clean up the situation once and for all and end this debate. Offer a good but realistic salary to all concerned on a "take it or leave it" basis.

Only this week we've heard distressed parents tell of SNA hours per pupil being reduced for special needs children. These parents can't "negotiate". They're told "that's it, the country's in debt, this is what you're getting, take it or leave it".