Irish Examiner view: Questions for broadcaster yet again

Readers will no doubt recall the RTÉ payment scandal of 2023

Sat, 16 May, 2026 - 01:00

Readers will no doubt recall the RTÉ payment scandal of 2023, a controversy which led to high theatre at a succession of Oireachtas hearings, a slew of high-profile resignations and departures, and promises from RTÉ to do better in the future.

Revelations this week about payments at the broadcaster suggest otherwise. We learned that Derek Mooney was reclassified as a producer rather than a presenter from 2020 to 2024, for instance, which has led to some sharp follow-up questioning because, in 2019, RTÉ announced plans to reduce the fees for top contracted on-air presenters by 15%.

RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst has rejected suggestions the Mooney reclassification was a side deal to avoid pay cuts from 2020 onwards, saying: “No, I don’t think it was.” He said the station’s legal advice about the reclassification was that it was a “perfectly justifiable decision”, given that Mr Mooney’s contract was as an executive producer.

We also learned this week that Claire Byrne and Ray D’Arcy were paid €97,000 between them after they had both ceased to provide services to the station. Mr Bakhurst stressed that the presenters were legally entitled to the full payment terms of their contracts, but acknowledged that both “...were available to work until [the end of their contracts], but we took a decision, we wanted to launch the new schedule”.

As a result, Ms Byrne was paid €47,000 and Mr D’Arcy €50,000 for doing nothing.

Paying handsome fees to staff who do no work in return is difficult to accept. This is an extraordinarily cavalier attitude for any organisation to take, let alone one with such a disastrous financial history — and at a time when people have been blocking the roads because of the high cost of living.

Media minister Patrick O’Donovan has already pointed out that RTÉ has been bailed out by the taxpayer to the tune of €750m. His meeting next week with RTÉ representatives promises to be bruising, and the state broadcaster has nobody to blame but itself.

Make cylcing safe

Bike Week concludes tomorrow, ending a week of community and school cycles, fun bike festivals, safety workshops, and more. The positives associated with cycling range from health dividends to environmental improvement, and it is difficult to envisage a public activity which can confer so many benefits on our communities.

It is all the more disappointing, then, to learn that women are only half as likely as men to choose to cycle, and the reasons for that low uptake are even more depressing.

The Empowering Women to Cycle report from Transport Infrastructure Ireland, which surveyed more than 1,000 women, found that half of those surveyed said unsafe roads were a barrier to cycling. Some 45% of them mentioned negative attitudes, with some participants citing abusive encounters with other people; some referred to an increasing “car culture” and “aggressive” driver behaviour.

There were other interesting takeaways from the survey, with women focusing on high traffic speed and volume as other disincentives, while specific infrastructural changes were also mentioned. Segregated cycle lanes, well-lit routes, better-connected routes, and protection at junctions were among the changes mooted by participants.

Altering the physical environment to make it safer for cyclists is relatively easily achieved if the will is there to do so, but aggression and abuse are a different matter.

Some readers will take them as evidence of a growing level of hostility and aggression in Ireland in general, while others may speculate about the various causes for that growth.

That should not distract us from the specific issue here, however, that the fact that women are half as likely to use bicycles as men is an indictment of our society as a whole. If half of the country’s population is reticent about taking up a leisure activity that is healthy and beneficial then we should seek to change that as a matter of urgency.

One of those surveyed in this report pointed out that if motorists “cycled Irish roads for even just a week, they would understand cyclists much more”.

If drivers had a mandatory week’s cycling once a year, as part of their licence, our road network might be a more understanding place.

Rallying round folk star

Earlier this week, Irish music legend Jimmy Crowley featured in these pages after sharing a post on social media.

“I’ve been rather under the weather of late,” Crowley wrote.

“In late September 2025, I was diagnosed with stage three oesophageal cancer. Three months later, on December 27, I had a debilitating stroke. I’ve been in the stroke ward in Cork University Hospital for nearly five months now.”

He went on to state that he is seeking to leave the hospital but needs another full-time carer in addition to his partner and is therefore seeking donations to “...return to Cobh and live at home, rather than in a nursing home, for the time I have left”.

Crowley has been a beloved figure in Irish music for decades, and in his native Cork in particular, going back to the folk club scene of the 1960s and later with the band Stoker’s Lodge.

His back catalogue includes Salonika and a famous reggae version of The Boys of Fair Hill, as well as countless live performances which brought joy and pleasure to thousands of music lovers over the years.

At press time his appeal had raised over €67,000. It can be found by searching “help Jimmy Crowley come home” at gofundme.com.

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Irish Examiner view: Legal complexity cannot mean inaction

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