Oliver Callan receives second payment for Callans' Kicks, RTÉ reveal

Ellen O'Donoghue

RTÉ’s director general has accepted there could be “one or two cases” where people in the organisation are earning more than him, and revealed that Oliver Callan receives a second payment for his satirical show Callans' Kicks.

Kevin Bakhurst has previously said no-one at RTÉ should earn more than he does.

He appeared before the Oireachtas Media Committee on Tuesday for a hearing dealing with revelations around presenter pay which emerged last week.

Committee chairman and Labour TD Alan Kelly challenged the director general, saying: “There could very well be a scenario, Mr Bakhurst, where somebody working in RTÉ is actually earning more than you.”

The director general agreed, adding: “There could be in one or two cases.”

He has a basic salary of €250,000 and is entitled to a car allowance of €25,000 and a pension contribution of €62,500 – taking his overall earnings to €337,500.

Fianna Fáil TD Padraig O’Sullivan asked if some of the “big names” are potentially earning multiples of the basic pay of the leadership through being a presenter, producer and a company owner responsible for several different productions.

Bakhurst replied: “I don’t they are – I think we may be talking about one person here.”

The committee hearing was convened to discuss issues around funding and pensions, but largely examined recent controversies on top-paid presenters.

Last week, RTÉ revealed that Derek Mooney has been at least its ninth highest-paid presenter since 2020 – but had not featured in annual lists as he was classified as a producer.

Bakhurst told the committee that some of the commentary around the revelation was “unfair”.

“We were trying to do the right thing to be more transparent by putting this out and there was comments around it, which I thought were unfair.”

He added: “And there was a price for it.”

Bakhurst said RTÉ’s then-director general and then-chief financial officer took a decision in 2020 that Mooney was doing more producing than presenting.

Sinn Féin TD Joanna Byrne asked Bakhurst who made the decision that saw Mooney excluded from the annual list of the top-10 highest earning presenters between 2020 and 2024.

The director general said: “From what we’ve seen, the decision was taken by the CFO and the director general” that the balance of his work was he did more producing than presenting.

He added: “Though we took a different view, which is he’s well known as a presenter.”

Deputy director general Adrian Lynch added a “clarification”: “It was an instruction that was given to a person in payments that – per DG – he was to be classified as a producer.”

Bakhurst explained that RTÉ staff members have been put on “personal contracts” that exceed the salary cap for their role.

He said this would have happened in the past in circumstances where someone had been offered a job somewhere else and wanted to “keep them”.

However, he said RTÉ does not “do it any more really”.

Bakhurst also told the committee that there are some presenters who work for independent companies providing content to RTÉ separately to the direct work they do for the broadcaster.

He said it was not industry practice anywhere in Europe to include those earnings in overall salary figures, but said they could “look at it”.

Radio presenter Oliver Callan was cited as an example, who is also a producer on the satire shows Callan’s Kicks and Callan Kicks the Year.

Senator Ronan Mullen told the director general: “I am astounded to learn today what I think you’ve said, which is that it remains the case that through a combination of a personal salary and a payment to a company, a person might avoid being mentioned in the top 10.

“And I actually thought we had moved beyond all that, and listening then to talk of it still being possible, if I understand you correctly, that a person could be put on a personal contract that they bring you to exceed the cap – it sounds to me like we’re still down an Animal Farm and that some animals are still more equal than others, and the public is still in the dark.”

Fine Gael senator and former RTÉ sports broadcaster Evanne Ní Chuilinn criticised a “two-tier system” at her previous employer.

Ní Chuilinn said there are people presenting high-profile programmes without presenter contracts.

She said they had been asked to be reclassified, in a way similar to how Derek Mooney had his role reclassified, but were told they could not.

Ní Chuilinn said she asked repeatedly for a presenter contract but never received one.

“I was never paid or contracted as a presenter, and I should have been, because, as you say, presenters earn more than reporters.”

As an example, she said there was someone on €70,000 presenting World Cup programmes and researchers presenting the Today Show.

Bakhurst said he did not believe they were on researcher contracts and said there had always been a range of salaries for presenters depending on experience, how they connect with the audience, and how valued they are.

Ní Chuilinn said: “I was good money, I was worth the money that you paid, you got good value out of me.”

She also told the committee she was “treated very poorly” by the head of sports and another senior figure.