Better off without RTÉ big earners

SO, the thorny issue of the handsome salaries paid to RTÈ presenters raises its head yet again.

For me this issue is quite clear-cut and comes down to one thing: priorities.

Yes, the hard-pressed Irish PAYE worker has to fork out a total of €160 per year to subsidise RTÈ’s vast talent bank. Yet, I put this to the naysayers: talent doesn’t come cheap and where would we be without these stalwarts?

Indeed, it’s an irrefutable fact that Pat Kenny, currently RTÈ’s highest earner, has already taken a whopping 23% pay cut in the last two years. How many of us mere mortals have suffered a cut of that enormity?

And, there’s worse to come according to our national broadcaster’s director general, Noel Curran, who ominously forecasts a crippling 30% wage cut for all RTÈ’s top brass in the next two years.

Where would we be were we to lose RTÈ’s finest to rival, private operators and all because of short-sighted penny-pinching?

Wouldn’t the listening and viewing public be all the worse without Kenny’s razor sharp analysis and political nous on both his radio and TV programmes? Likewise, look at Ryan Tubridy, hosting the station’s flagship Late Late Show whilst suffering the indignity of a €13,000 salary cut. That’s public service for you. And, wouldn’t all our weekend mornings be a lot duller if RTÈ mainstay Marian Finucane chose to relinquish her two-hour Saturday and Sunday morning radio shows (for which she is paid €570,000 per annum or, if one must be crassly pedantic, €4,750 per minute)?

And finally, wouldn’t weekday afternoons be unthinkable without RTÈ agony uncle Joe Duffy offering the stressed-out Irish populace the chance to offload their angst?

A worthy and worthwhile public service which he performs for a recession-busting €390,000. Positively paltry in comparison to his peers. Real talent doesn’t come cheap and you cannot put a price on everything. So, I pose the question again; where would we all be without RTÈ’s top-earning stars?

Short answer: a damn sight better off.

JD Mangan

The Haven

Stillorgan Rd

Stillorgan

Co Dublin