RTÉ admits paying Tubridy €345,000 more than declared

Almost 20 years on boards, more of a reader ( I've an average of 20 odd posts a year. mostly shite) This thread really saddens me (RTE Employee). Why do people have such strong convictions and espouse strong opinions on things they really have no clue about. Not all staff in RTE are on outlandish salaries. I understand there will be trolls and dopes but FFS sake we are talking about people with families and mortgages on average salaries that will pay the the price for deals they had as much knowledge of as the average man on the street. Are you really getting your jollies from this?

I think maybe you should ask yourself why people have such strong opinions on RTE, and perhaps a lack of sympathy for the self inflicted predicament it now finds itself in. Has there been any self reflection at RTE on where things have gone wrong?

The truth is RTE has represented poor value for money for a long time. It spun a threadbare yarn for years about how it needed to pay inflated salaries to retain "talent". It told us that "Truth matters" but would only give the public their version of the truth.

The main thing though is that RTE has alienated much of its audience. Trust in journalism has been weakening for some time but for RTEs output it has completely evaporated.

People are entitled to opinions on any organisation, especially when they are badly run. But ordinary staff who where unaware of "Talent "contracts (because that's what this is about really) and would have **** all say in them somehow they self inflicted this? Your asking these people to self reflect?

The Tubridy scandal was the straw that broke the camels back - it's not really about Tubridy anymore, it's about a loss of trust and an alienated audience. RTE would likely have needed a bailout regardless, either through direct cash payment and/or the State buying acres of advertising. Traditional media is shrinking and has been for some time but the largesse at RTE continued. Did anyone think to wonder if it was sustainable or were they all out for a slice of the action?

All staff play a role in a companies culture.

Did anyone think to wonder if it was sustainable or were they all out for a slice of the action?

All staff play a role in a companies culture.

Sound stuff thanks, I'll let the postroom lads know tomorrow.

Staff pressing for pay rises when the companies finances were in an unsustainable position was part of the problem. Unions too do need to be cognisant of the overall financial picture and RTEs financial woes were well known for a long time. They all thought that the State would step in because RTE was too important to fail. Where did they think the money was going to come from?

That said management should have said no.

In the leaked plan there is no one being let go - it's a voluntary process over 4 years that is budget to cost €100k on average per person.

Assuming an even spread, an organisation the size of RTE would see 50ish retirements a year naturally. This may well suit many in there.

Why didn't they speak out before over the last number of years. Did they not see the shambles at the top?

I don't know why anyone in RTÉ would feel the need to argue at this late stage. Do you not understand that everyone has been in the same position over the years. Do you not see how lucky you are? Why get angry at posters on boards. Did you ever think to tell Dee Forbes what an absolute hames of RTÉ that she was making running the company?

Our arguments for and against RTÉ bare no relevance to the employees but to the mismanagement of RTÉ, yes it is terrible for their employees and I feel sorry for them.

Every year the salaries of the top ten presenters are published, when Pat Kenny left RTÉ said he got a loyalty bonus for finishing his contract, RTÉ published this fact.

But its not just about the "talent" and the deals that were made, its about all the cuts of the years, for no reason.

small things like repeats and repeats, small things like how do you have a 7 month day time show when you competition has a 12 month morning show, or why does the news room take such long holidays. Do you not see this? are you not aware of this?

Cuts to Drama, Cuts to Young People's, continually supporting 2FM.

No one asked for cuts we are asking for a proper service one that we can be proud of, now you all just want to make it about the poor little guy in RTÉ.

Well maybe turn up the the arguments and explain why it is so bad? Why they insist on 25m going to imported programming every year. There is a cut to be made.

You seem to think we don't understand. Well then its time to make us understand, because Dee Forbes do a great job of it now did she.

The generals get the ideas but the poor bloody infantry gets the bullets.

The focus on the "talent" and their salaries has skewed the coverage. Being cynical about it, the 400 jobs being cut may be a reaction to that in that it is a nice round number and makes it seem like RTE management is taking the hard decisions but it is the management that needs to change. It all makes for nice headlines and the minister can pretend to be dealing with the problems of RTE. I'm not sure that RTE is fit for purpose and a lot of this is due to the safety blanket that the licence fee provided. It hasn't had to evolve at the same rate as the other broadcasters despite being in a highly competitive market. RTE can be quite innovative. I remember seeing a demo of an RTE digital TV service with an Internet connection back in the 1990s. This was when the problem of a feedback loop in Conditional Access/Pay TV was a major issue.

Most of the TV audience in Ireland is concentrated on the cable networks of the cities. That means that the competition is not just from Irish broadcasters. A public service broadcaster RTE would work. But I'm not sure that a commercial RTE without the luxury of the licence fee could survive on the same scale of RTE's current commerical operation.

2RN needs to be protected as critical national infrastructure. I remember when the then FF minister Sile DeValera wanted to get in on the IPO frenzy in the late 1990s and sell off some of RTE (It was quite a stupid idea). FF made a complete mess of the TE flotation and gave away critical national infrastructure to be plundered. Eircom never recovered from that. If 2RN is kept within RTE, for the moment, that's the least worst outcome.

Half-measures and the failure to address the serious issues like costs and management could still sink RTE even with the job cuts.

Regards...jmcc

I do agree that there are most likely a lot of hard working staff that do not deserve the repercussions of this. It's the Tubs/Duffy)Byrne/O'Callaghan etc. gravy train that, while perhaps a small % in terms of wages/contract fees, brought the place into disrepute. Including Moya "Dee is the first woman DG, and a visionary" Doherty. She also being part of the independent companies sucking on the teat of RTE.

Tubs keeping €150k of our license fees, while simultaneously some politicians (surely not the general public,?) in Clifden who think he's worthy of putting their Xmas lights on, shows that some people still admire disgusting behaviour.

Hasn’t he got some connection to a Clifden hotel?

That’s it, taxpayer has just been their ATM. I’d be very happy just to see a pure PSO station. They can keep their commercial side and give me the choice of having to pay for it or not. Would be happy to pony up for a PSO station that the government of the day didn’t have their hand in it. The ‘talent’ I can live with out.

Do you actuley know what you are talking about, have you heard of computers. RTE staff are to be let go because an amount of them can work from home?

I am sure the talent will take significant pay cuts to try and save some lower level jobs and retain services.