Top RTÉ presenters’ peak salaries to fall 40%
RTÉ director general Noel Curran yesterday acknowledged that the issue was a public concern, but said contracts of some of the country’s best-known broadcasters had been cut by between 21% and 68%.
Mr Curran said the average reduction in the pay of RTÉ’s top 10 earners will be ahead of its 30% target and closer to 40% once all remaining contracts are finalised later this year.
RTÉ revealed that the average pay of its top stars would be close to €280,000 in 2013 compared to €444,000 five years ago.
Appearing before the Oireachtas Communications Committee yesterday, he admitted pay levels had become “over-inflated” during the economic boom. “Put simply, we paid our presenters too much,” he observed.
Fine Gael TD Patrick O’Donovan contrasted how the much larger BBC had only 19 staff on salaries in excess of £500,000 (€85,0000, while Independent TD Tom Fleming highlighted how some RTÉ stars earned more than US president Barack Obama.
However, Mr Curran replied that nobody in RTÉ would earn more than £500,000 under their new contracts, while pointing out that 9,000 British public servants earned more than British prime minister, David Cameron.
He also rejected criticism by committee chairman Tom Hayes that RTÉ’s use of contracts allowed its top stars to pay less tax, by noting that it was an issue for Revenue.
Outlining the station’s financial position, Mr Curran said RTÉ had overcome considerable challenges over the past year as it adjusted to “a new financial reality” which has seen its commercial revenues decrease by €84m or 35% since 2008, while its public funding had been reduced by a further €20m.
However, he pointed out that the State broadcaster had also cuts its cost base by €86m over the same period, which has seen staff levels fall by 500, or 21%, at Montrose.
Mr Curran said the €60m deficit reported last year was largely due to a one-off restructuring cost due to a redundancy package and he remained hopeful that RTÉ would reach break-even in 2013, despite the commercial market remaining difficult.
He said RTÉ was almost unique in the semi-state sector in achieving such cost reductions, with the station’s wage bill having been cut by €42m since 2008. The average salary in RTÉ is now €55,500.
The RTÉ boss also insisted addressing serious editorial mistakes made during a Prime Time Investigates programme and the Frontline presidential election debate had been one of the state broadcaster’s key priorities.
In response to a suggestion by Mr Fleming that he should have resigned in the aftermath of the controversies, Mr Curran said it was common knowledge that he was prepared to “take accountability” at the time.
The committee heard that cutbacks had resulted in a 6% reduction in Irish-made programmes, although station bosses insisted the focus of cost-cutting was concentrated in non-programming areas.
The average home-produced programme now costs €40,000 compared to €2,700 for imported content.
However, RTÉ acting chief finance officer, Breda O’Keeffe, said the cost of an hour’s programming on RTÉ 1 had fallen by 29% since 2008 and by 21% on RTÉ 2.
In terms of radio, the cost of an hour’s output on both Radio 1 and 2fm had decreased by 24% and by 20% on Lyric FM and by 18% on Raidió na Gaeltachta.
Mr Curran said the proposed broadcasting charge to replace the €160 TV licence fee was not the panacea for all problems in the broadcasting industry, adding that it was estimated the new charge would only raise an additional €20m in revenue.
