Taoiseach: RTÉ executives should not be made pay back 10% pay increase 

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the Government had no role in determining pay rates in RTÉ. Picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

The Taoiseach says he does not believe RTÉ executives should be made pay back their 10% pay increase, despite the financial crisis at the national broadcaster.

Leo Varadkar said while the issue was a matter for the individuals themselves, he did not believe they should be forced to hand back the money.

RTÉ’s annual report this week revealed the broadcaster reported a €2.8m deficit for 2022 in a year that saw the failure of its Toy Show: The Musical venture and a fall in TV licence fee revenues.

The report also showed executives’ salaries increased 10% in the form of a restoration of a previous cut.

And it showed how the €15m in additional State funding provided last year is not expected to be enough to offset all of the cost increases the national broadcaster faces in 2023.

There have been reports in recent weeks which have suggested the bailout that RTÉ will seek this year could be anywhere between €25m and €50m.

Speaking in Cork on Friday, Mr Varadkar said the Government had no role in determining pay rates in RTÉ.

“When it comes to the public sector, when it comes to Government departments and State agencies, the Government has a role in determining pay,” he said.

“When it comes to State-owned enterprises like RTÉ, like the ESB for example, we actually don’t.

And I don’t think it’s right for Government ministers to be trying to set pay levels in State-owned enterprises like RTÉ.

“What we have said is that if RTÉ requires additional funding this year, and it will, we're going to need to see a reform plan and a new strategy from the board and from the DG [director-general Kevin Bakhurst] and any additional funding this year or next year will be conditional on that.

“But we're not going to be, from Government, trying to impose pay cuts on other people.

“It is a state-owned enterprise and it does run its own affairs.” 

He said he understood the annoyance among RTÉ rank and file staff to the news of the increase in RTÉ executive salaries.

“I think what is very annoying for people, certainly for a lot of the ordinary rank and file staff in RTÉ, is that what had been presented as a pay cut was really only a one year pay cut, a one-off pay cut, and that has certainly, I think, caused a lot of annoyance, particularly for the regular staff in RTÉ who would have thought otherwise,” he said.

“But fundamentally, I think if RTÉ is going to get back on an even footing financially, we do need that to happen — it's an important public service broadcaster, an important service for the country — it's going to require a new financial plan, it’s going to require reform plan.”

In a statement, RTÉ Director General Kevin Backhurt said there will be complete transparency around the pay of the new leadership team at RTÉ. 

"I have already said that we will publish their pay annually in the RTÉ Annual Report, and we will do so," he said. 

"Transparency and accountability to the audience and to the Oireachtas will be critical. I aim to deliver that transparency in the changes that we have made and in the plans we will outline in the weeks ahead for a new and more open RTÉ."