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Pat Kenny speaking to Chris O'Donoghue in an interview earlier today Screengrab via Newstalk/YouTube

Pat Kenny on his Newstalk move: 'The money is not the overriding factor'

The broadcaster has been speaking to Newstalk about his shock decision to leave RTÉ and join the radio station.

PAT KENNY HAS insisted that his decision to leave RTÉ and join Newstalk is not motivated by money saying that he wanted “fundamental change”.

Kenny has shocked the media world by deciding to leave the State broadcaster and join Newstalk where he will present a mid-morning show from 10am to 12.30pm from 2 September.

Kenny told Newstalk’s Breakfast show presenter Chris O’Donoghue in a video interview this afternoon that he did not want to work with “the same intensity” as he has done on RTÉ, presenting Prime Time on television and Today with Pat Kenny on the radio.

The 65-year-old said that Newstalk has “great ambitions”, saying it is a station that is growing in Ireland.

Comparing his decision to that of his departure from hosting the Late Late Show in 2009, he said:

I think people will be surprised. They would think I’m a lifer in RTÉ, but I mean there’s nothing like surprising people.

He said that he hoped to return to television screens in the future, admitting he did not know what capacity this would be. However, the veteran broadcasteer did say he did not have a “burning desire” to be on television anymore.

Asked about the possibility that he was offered more money by Newstalk than RTÉ, he insisted that money was not the “overriding factor” that made up his mind.

He said: “I had two offers on the table, the money is not the overriding factor at all. RTÉ made me a very generous offer to continue but I weighed it up, I discussed it with the family. They kind of detected the enthusiasm I had for fundamental change.”

He said staying at RTÉ would have been the “easiest thing in the world” but said he is someone who likes “even to surprise myself sometimes”.

Kenny said that he hoped that his listeners on RTÉ would “slide up the dial” to listen to him on Newstalk. ”

There will hopefully the same rigour, the same discipline, the same curiousity,” he said of his hopes for his new programme.

Watch the full interview, via Newstalk:

YouTube: Newstalk106108fm

Read: Pat Kenny is leaving RTÉ to join Newstalk

More: 14 of the best Pat Kenny moments

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    Mute Darren Davis
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:16 PM

    Thanks for the recipes. The soup was lovely, I’ll try the compost one for lunch tomorrow

    47
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    Mute Mal
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    Jan 12th 2019, 1:11 PM

    Thanks that does sound simple

    29
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    Mute ianglen
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:23 PM

    Neighbour put out a compost bin last at back of house and the rats had a field day.
    Put it as far away from your house if you can..

    14
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    Mute Brian McCarthy
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    Jan 13th 2019, 4:20 PM

    @ianglen: you’re putting the wrong stuff in the composter
    if it’s attracting rats

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    Mute Sean
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:59 PM

    Composting is amazing all right. Did you know that you can get rid of a 1000 pound cow in just six weeks by covering it in eight cubic yards of wood mulch? Basic recipe. Place the carcass on a bed of wood chips 2 feet deep, then cover it to a depth of about 4 feet, with at least 2 feet on the sides.It doesn’t attract flies or vermin or smell. It just disappears! All you are left with is some large bones.

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Jan 12th 2019, 3:22 PM

    @Sean: How many suburban and town gardeners have got a 1000 pound dead cow to begin with?

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    Mute WoodlandBard
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    Jan 12th 2019, 4:18 PM

    @Garreth Byrne: i think this may have started as a Dublin gangster technique that eventually got adapted to farm animals.

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    Mute Garreth Byrne
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    Jan 12th 2019, 6:59 PM

    @WoodlandBard: I see. So composted dead cows and composted dead gangstas are equally effective in organic vegetable gardening, eh? IOFGA and the Soil Association might have reservations.

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    Mute Tweety McTweeter
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    Jan 12th 2019, 2:48 PM

    Dampening it down with a bleach mix every so often gets rid of the smell and kills off the yucky bugs and insects

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    Mute Ryan Dub
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    Jan 12th 2019, 5:26 PM

    @Tweety McTweeter: Do not put bleach in the garden.

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    Mute Brian Ó Dálaigh
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    Jan 12th 2019, 5:44 PM

    @Tweety McTweeter: would you tuck into a nice glass of bleach? If your answer is no, then do not put it on any compost that you intend to use for growing food. Also, if your compost smells that badly it means you’re doing it completely wrong.

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    Mute helen walsh
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    Jan 12th 2019, 4:45 PM

    Yes, how do you keep vermin away from compost heaps, their urine and droppings are bound to infect the compost heap…

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    Mute silentbob2012
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    Jan 13th 2019, 12:00 AM

    @helen walsh: simple. It’s not a black art.Everything for your compost heap must be uncooked and plant based. That means no cooked foods, no fats, no carbs, no oils. Egg shells excepted but it helps to break them down before chucking ‘em on your compost. Mix in cardboard, unbleached paper and newspaper from time to time, layered grass clippings, any garden vegetation as in the article above and away you go. If you’ve got rats or mice, you’ve been putting in foodstuffs.

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    Mute datagharch
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    Sep 18th 2019, 8:41 AM

    thanks alot

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    Mute David Cagney
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    Jan 13th 2019, 10:40 AM

    I don’t have a square yard, it’s more rectangular, with a circular end – so none of this is going to work.

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    Mute Ciarán Mac Cormaic
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    Jan 13th 2019, 4:55 PM

    @David Cagney: You might still be able to have the soup.

    3
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