Diarmaid Ferriter: Culture of ‘open secrets and secret secrets’ has always surrounded RTÉ pay

Historically, there has been little secrecy about the overall state of RTÉ’s finances. The headlines concerning the broadcaster’s financial health were often couched in terms of “emergency” or “crisis.” Fifty years ago, there were constant references to its perilous position, with industrial strife and acrimony. In 1975, when RTÉ was anticipating a £2 million loss, director general (DG) Oliver Moloney told its staff they had three choices: “They could accept 200 redundancies, forego all wage increases until the end of 1976, or accept salary cuts averaging 7 per cent per employee, rising to 10 per cent for those in higher income brackets”.

As usual, RTÉ wanted an increase in the licence fee, which was granted, but external reviews also insisted RTÉ needed to exercise “more rigid budgetary control”. There was inevitable curiosity about how much RTÉ’s biggest star, Gay Byrne, was earning. Maeve Binchy profiled him for this newspaper in 1979 and suggested “he must certainly have few money worries. He is always saying that it’s nobody’s business what he earns. He isn’t on the staff as such; he’s on contract with RTÉ, so they probably renew that each year or every three years giving him more and more. Perhaps he’s right not to discuss it. He can hardly chat sincerely with someone who is on a phone and talking about poverty if the world knows exactly what figures are in his salary.”

By the early 1990s, however, the RTÉ authority was getting agitated about the matter, especially because of the introduction of commercial radio. As recounted in John Bowman’s 2011 history of RTÉ television, Window and Mirror, in March 1992 the DG Vincent Finn circulated to the RTÉ Authority a “secret list of the pay of RTE’s best remunerated presenters”, noting that estimating the commercial value of these broadcasters to RTÉ was “a very subjective business”.

RTÉ’s “commercial people” estimated Byrne’s radio and television shows brought in £7 million to £8 million out of an RTÉ total of £56 million and suggested the “personal element” was possibly worth “over £2 million”. Finn noted that the pay to top presenters “bore no relation” to other salaries. The RTÉ authority chairman John Sorohan thought the salary figures “quite astronomical” and emphasised there were no rival employers willing to match them.

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By 1994, Byrne was being paid £200,000 for radio work, £250,000 for television, £25,000 for producing the Late Late Show with a further £125,000 from sales of the Late Late Show to Channel 4; a payment was also made by Channel 4 to RTÉ for the programme. As Bowman notes, this made a total remuneration of £600,000 for Byrne, but “the total could have been expressed differently: as £475,000 from RTÉ, with permission to accept a market-based fee from the sales of the Late Late Show to Channel Four”.

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Secrecy remained paramount, but Oireachtas committees were demanding information by the 1990s. In 1998, details about the salaries of top earners were given to the minister for arts Síle de Valera by DG Bob Collins “during a private briefing”. The figures were only shared with her and two other Cabinet members; the taoiseach and tánaiste. The Cabinet then maintained its “request for information had been complied with.”

There was now much public discourse about top RTÉ salaries, a reminder that the current controversy is the culmination of a quarter of a century of a saga. The phrase “commercial sensitivity” was frequently cited, as was the value of advertising revenue generated by stars, but there was always suspicion about shadow language and ambiguities.

Case for transparency

In 1998, former controller of programmes Muiris Mac Conghail observed “we have a culture of open secrets and secret secrets”, but in a tax-funded organisation where “news, public and current affairs are at the core of the business” the case for transparency in relation to broadcasters’ salaries was compelling. This argument won the day, or so we thought. When in 2004, RTÉ first officially revealed details of its top earners for the financial year ended 2002, Gerry Ryan was listed as the top earner, on €601,882 compared to the €260,925 he was paid in 2001. The explanation given for the more than doubling of his salary was “exceptional payment relating to contractual adjustment.”

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Then came what were described as the “bubble era” salaries; Pat Kenny for example, received €950,976 in 2008, while Ryan Tubridy was paid €723,500 in 2011. The official Government line in 2011 was that it was up to RTÉ management to act “as they see appropriate” and a mandatory salary cap would not be considered. That remained its position, even when RTÉ was set to record a €60 million deficit for 2012. RTÉ had to act to reduce salaries, and did, but what was always clear in relation to the overall RTÉ financial position and need for “rigid budgetary control” was, it appears, murkier when it came to certain strands of accounting.