117 RTE staff members earned over €100,000 in basic salary last year

That is according to new figures published by RTÉ which show that of the 117 staff members, 22 earned between €150,000 and €250,000.

The remaining 95 earned between €100,000 and €150,000.

Crucially, the figures don’t include RTÉ’s top earners including the likes of Ryan Tubridy, Joe Duffy and Ray D’Arcy as they are not RTE staff but independent contractors and are paid through companies that they have established.

The 117 RTÉ staff members earning over €100,000 last year is a decline of five on the 122 in that earning bracket for 2019.

Last year, a further 176 RTÉ staff members earned between €80,000 and €100,000 and the new figures show that average pay at RTE last year totalled €60,753 - a marginal increase on the average salary of €60,713 for 2019.

The RTE figures show that 554 RTE staff earned between €60,000 and €80,000 with the largest cohort at 745 earning between €40,000 and €60,000.

A further 274 earned salaries between “€0 to €40,000”.

In April, RTE staff overwhelmingly voted against a proposal by management for pay cuts ranging from 3.5 per cent to 5.35 per cent for any staff member earning over €40,000.

Irish Secretary at the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), Seamus Dooley said today that the earning bands published by RTE “debunk the myth that average RTÉ salaries are inflated or that there is a culture of excessive pay across the organisation”.

A spokesman for RTÉ said on Friday: “Changes in salary bands are a result of normal annual movements across the organisation, including retirements.”

Asked for a gender breakdown on those earning over €100,000, the spokesman said: “RTÉ does not publish a breakdown of salary bands by gender."

RTÉ is seeking to reduce its operating costs by €60m between 2020 and 2023 though numbers employed at the broadcaster increased last year from 1,831 to 1,866.

The broadcaster’s costs are set to increase this year with coverage of ‘special events’ such as the Tokyo Olympics, the Euros and the current Paralympics.

The RTE spokesman wouldn’t be drawn on what the costs may be from covering these events in 2021 stating that the financial figures will be available in the RTE 2021 annual report.

As part of the move to reduce costs, RTE announced a voluntary redundancy scheme aiming for 60 staff members to avail of it.

The scheme was oversubscribed and is now closed. The RTE spokesman stated: ”We continue to review applications to the Voluntary Exit Programme and communicate directly with those who have been successful. Where necessary, we will phase departures to allow time for restructuring and to minimise impact on our operations.”