RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

I don’t know what sort of payments TV3 make to their “talent” but it’s a very limited market either way in Ireland- RTE certainly have the opportunity to be more aggressive now with their negotiations for run of the mill presenters but the commercial realities still haven’t changed- so you lose a talent to the opposition for the sake of 50k or 100j?

Maybe that’s a decision they’ll consider but at the cost of potentially millions in lost revenue and handing that to the opposition?

Theres only a certain few in Ireland -the Tubridys Kennys Duffys Dempseys etc that can bring in sack fulls of cash - if you let one of those go, you’re essentially saying I don’t need all that revenue.

They’re paid sick amounts of money for what they do, yes- but I think RTÉ may be forced to keep paying similar amounts.

In terms of Kielty, he’s an unknown entity right now in terms of how he’ll perform- if TLLS does well, he’ll certainly be in a great negotiation position next time around- so he’s currently untested- I’d say that’s why his fee is quite low- but I was surprised just how low the fee was.

I think it’s the lesser “talent” that will suffer at the end of the day- negotiations will be more ruthless- take it or leave it offers will become the norm- possibly programming quality will suffer but maybe lesser paid new talent hungry to make a strong impression could emerge from this also.

As well as family, he also believes he has many friends in RTE....

I think "competitive salary" is the key point there. It's clear that RTE were paying a lot of the top presenters far more than a competitive salary, considering that those presenters were unlikely to have been able to get a similar salary elsewhere. A somewhat flexible cap to make sure salaries are competitive, but realistic, would be a good idea. As RTE themselves admitted in a previous committee meeting, RTE were essentially bidding against themselves with the offers they were making. Doing so is itself a mismanagment of public funds.

Eh RTÉ? 🤪

Noel Kelly was fibbing ???

Say it's not true !!

He seemed so trustworthy

I completely agree with that. Tubridy isn’t worth his wages because they are certainly over market value.

But reacting to Tubridys case with a cap on wages is an overreaction I think. It’s possible in future that RTE will have presenters that have actual offers from rivals/abroad, and RTE need to be able to compete with those offers. Maybe a mechanism needs to be put in place that any offer over a certain amount would need to go through a PAC review so they can be satisfied that it’s an appropriate and competitive offer.

Riveting stuff . Well done senator. That’s a very good example of some/ each member of these committees having ONE specific issue to EXPLORE. - and 10 min may not be enough to dig out such detail and get such an ‘ ALL OVER THE FLOOR ‘ response

Why was payment made in advance - especially by a commercial company - unless it got a big discount

This 10 min limit worked a treat for RT and NK Just like a boxer knowing that he is ahead by two rounds with one round to go. He only has to stay standing for the final round to win - if victory goes to the boxer who wins the most rounds

I really hope they have proof that Noel Kelly did, in fact, have tea with Dee Forbes.

This is it though. The people who had realistic options elsewhere over the years have taken them and left. Terry Wogan, Eamonn Sndrews, even Caitriona Perry of late. An attractive offer isn’t necessarily financial only. It’s a lure of working with a bigger organisation with a larger audience and basically getting a piece of an oftentimes much bigger pie.

It’s like any business, the very ambitious people stay for a while but move on in time because they have found better offers. The less ambitious or talented stay. Usually those people can get good increases because of business experience and becoming core people but that’s different. You don’t double their salary if they haven’t been coming with credible offers on the basis that they might leave some day.

Colm Burke ripping the Chair of RTE a new one..... in Brendan Bendar parlance.