Ray D’Arcy media firm made profit of nearly €215,000

Ray D’Arcy’s media production company recorded profits of nearly €215,000 last year even after paying the RTÉ star an annual salary of almost €250,000, newly filed accounts have revealed.

The 52-year-old presenter owns a 95 per cent stake in Whatnext Productions Limited, a media firm set up in 2008. The remaining 5 per cent is held by D'Arcy's friend, Darren Smith, who was best man at his wedding to his producer, Jenny Kelly, in 2013.

Ms Kelly (44) has also been a director of the firm since 2014.

Whatnext Productions, which manages the radio and TV presenter’s income from RTÉ, made a profit of €214,836 last year and saw its cash pile increase from just €300 to €125,266 during the 12-month period.

Accounts just filed to the Companies Office also show that the company paid wages of €245,294 to its only employee, in addition to pension contributions of €30,000.

Fixed assets

The firm had fixed assets valued at €10,000 and owed creditors a total of €68,489, almost all of which related to taxation.

D'Arcy returned to RTÉ from Today FM in February 2015 to take over an afternoon radio slot on weekdays from 3pm. Last September, he also began presenting the Ray D'Arcy Show on RTÉ 1 television, which airs on Saturday nights.

It was rumoured that he had secured a deal worth almost €500,000 a year to leave Today FM for his previous employer. He subsequently denied this and claimed that his actual remuneration was “far from” this figure.

During his previous 13-year spell at RTÉ, the Kildare native presented a number of flagship programmes including The Den, the Rose of Tralee and Blackboard Jungle.