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THEY WERE BOTH named in RTÉ’s list of its top earners, but Ryan Tubridy and Claire Byrne both say they have no issue with their salaries being made public.
Tubridy tops the list, earning €495,000 a year, while Byrne is one of three women on the list, earning €201,500. The pair was speaking as RTÉ launched its new season for RTÉ One and RTÉ2.
Byrne, who recently gave birth to her third child, returns to RTÉ for Claire Byrne Live and her RTÉ One radio show this autumn. “I’ve been in the baby bubble for the last six weeks anyway so I’m out of the loop but I have seen it going on,” she said around the discussion about presenters’ pay.
“[I'm] very much aware that this happens and I know that I’m in a privileged position to be on that list,” she said. “I’d like to see more women on there, that would be great.”
Meanwhile, Ryan Tubridy said that the publishing of his salary is “part of my working year and people are entitled to know”, and that it is “perfectly legitimate and fair”.
Tubridy said that the pay issue “is a question for the management”, “because they’re the ones who decide what somebody is worth or somebody is not worth – not me. “It’s up to them to decide”.
Asked whether he thinks he is paid such a high wage because he’s “worth it”, Tubridy said:
The only ones who can answer that are the listeners, the viewers and the bosses.
Gender balance
The issue of gender and pay in the media world has been much discussed of late, with RTÉ’s director-general Dee Forbes saying that the broadcaster is reviewing the representation of women in terms of pay and on-air presence.
“In parallel with that, I will also be working with channel and station management to look at greater representational equality in terms of the makeup of our contributor panels,” Forbes said in early August.
The discussion was precipitated by the publication of BBC fees, which showed that there is an obvious gender pay gap among the broadcaster’s high earners.
“I think gender is an issue and gender pay is an issue not just in RTÉ, but because we are a media organisation it’s good that we’re leading the conversation,” said Byrne yesterday.
I think it’s good that people who work here and particularly women feel free to speak out about it in a very public way and I found that very heartening and I’m delighted that we’re doing a review, and I can’t wait to see what that review reveals.
She said that she hopes that other companies will take the lead from RTÉ’s moves on the issue.
“Because sometimes I think we’re held up as an example and perhaps the practice might be much worse elsewhere,” said the presenter. “We don’t know but we’re a very public organisation so we get a lot of heat on these things but I hope other places will take our lead.”
Byrne also described the publishing of her salary as “part and parcel” of her job. “As I say, I would like to say more women on that list and I’m not ashamed to say that that’s something I think we should be pushing for and certainly women in the organisation should be pushing for.”
As regards RTÉ giving greater transparency on pay within the organisation, Byrne said:
“I’m not sure where you stop with all of that. I’m not sure where it starts and where it stops. Why are we saying we need everybody’s salary revealed – is it because your licence fee is paying for it? Well then let’s get salaries revealed across the board where taxpayers are paying the salaries. So every organisation where the taxpayer is paying their salary then all of their salaries can be revealed. Perhaps. I don’t know. Where is the line? It’s certainly not for me to decide.”
On the issue of gender, Byrne said that Claire Byrne Live is trying to get more new voices on air this season, and is putting out a particular call for female voices.
Tubridy similarly said that he feels the gender pay gap needs to be closed. ”I’ve got two daughters, I’ve got two sisters and a mother I love, and my feeling would be on anything to do with gender and disparity, and any gap in relation in that regard, needs to be closed. Simple as that.”
In any field of life, whether it’s the workplace, whether it’s at home… that gap has to close. There’s a review happening in RTÉ, that’s correct to be happening and the next thing is the report that comes from that, that has to be actioned and whatever is broken needs to be fixed.
Tubridy said that he doesn’t know what his fellow broadcasters earn until the salary list is published, and that it is “cause for conversation, yeah”.
When asked if he receives any backlash from the public about his salary, he said no.
“I’m under no illusion as to my good fortune. We look at the Late Late Show and it has big sponsorship, the radio show has big sponsorship, the Toy Show is a good news day for RTÉ as well. I think these are things that need to be talked about as well,” he said.
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What the -Doh!-Tubridy wants the pay gap closed-how about dropping his own salary down to a realistic amount.Its the ordinary tax payer who pays his wages
@TheBluffmaster2: If history has taught us anything it is that to create harmony in society you don’t take away the privileges of those who have it, you increase and raise the privileges of those who don’t.
@TheBluffmaster2: compare talentless Tubs to Graham Norton?
@Gus Sheridan: Like chalk and cheese Gus.
@David Hickey: Privileges on half a million a year-I think i would feel quite privileged to be on half that salary to be honest.
@TheBluffmaster2: Dear god and she talks about being in a ‘baby bubble’ like having a baby makes you less aware of what is happening around you. Did she have daughters?
Along with media …..sort of …..has any one noticed the similarity of the 2 actors in the new lenor advert? One looks like Prince Harry and the other his girlfriend?
@TheBluffmaster2: precisely! Drop the wages to the same as Claire Byrne earns, why increase hers? Just because she’s female? That’s just bullcrap, she earns enough and he should earn exzactly the same as her…
@Lucille Ball: I never said that Lucille -I might need to visit Specksavers.
@TheBluffmaster2: You may need to visit Specksavers.
@TheBluffmaster2: “Its the ordinary tax payer who pays his wages”
Nope.
The licence payer and the commercial revenue pay his wages.
@Gus Sheridan: ” compare talentless Tubs to Graham Norton?”
What are you on about? Norton has no more talent that Tubridy.
@Gus Sheridan: compare him with Claire Byrne !
@David Murphey: and who subsidies RTE to make up the short fall
@TheBluffmaster2: I don’t know what you are referring to. RTE doesn’t get any funding from the central exchequer.
Not to mention RTE is biast and tells some whopper lies, who can remember the water protests, RTE reported that an estimated crowd of 10,000 on the streets when there was probably 150,000+, during the elections they slaughtered various politicans but much of FG escaped the wrath, it’s one of the worst TV stations ever
If a woman wants to close the gender pay gap all she had to do is choose a career that pays more, work full time and be good at her job.
@Awkward Seal: no guarantee ..women always have to work twice as hard, twice as long, be twice as clever, twice as qualified..just to keep up with sexism in the workplace what’s the solution?
@Awkward Seal: further we depend on women to keep the population going, without them where would the next generation come from, stop your nonsense, weren’t you conceived, nurtured in the womb and screamed your way down the birth channel? Didn’t you demand the breast at any only time? Didn’t you keep your parents awake at night? Or did you come from the thigh of Jupiter? These women are doing their duty to their country and doing a their jobs too. Get yourself a tether and grind your dissatisfaction on that…
@helen walsh: Where did you get these statistics from?
@helen walsh: twice the exaggeration as well !
Stealing money they are , is this the rubbish that our tv licences pays for ? Should all capped @ 100000€ per year (yes I know that’s still too much) . It’s an insult to the Irish people
@GRONG: bang on. These salaries are an insult.
@GRONG: you are right. I have to work 18 years for each one of RT’s yrs to get close to his income – working full time (in customer care) And I pay TV licence for the privilege of having a small telly in my house, despite not subscribing to any TV channels (apart from Netflix) after weighing up cost vs quality. Now, I don’t know what Mr Ts work day looks like, but I would be happier if I had a choice not to contribute to his wages.
How privileged is Ray Darcy ……. rolled out for the photo-call …… but not available for interview or questions???? Surely the licence fee payers are entitled to hear his side of the story too.
How long is Claire Byrne with rte compared to tubirty?
Tubs is useless on the late late show if that’s out best presenter how embarrassing..christ horrible programme to watch.
RTE is such a tired, uninspiring organisation. Year after year it’s the same s*ite and this time of year is the worst -Rose of Tralee, Late Late Show coming back etc etc. At least we have Up for The Match in 8 days time … the greatest broadcasting achievement in human history
Gender gap is a lie.
@Danny foley:
The gap itself isn’t a lie. It’s how people explain it.
Saying that women earn less because of sexism is the lie.
It’s not even about gender pay, each and every one of these charlatans earns vastly too much, not one of this lot should earn over 100K which for most is still a huge salary, is it any wonder many can’t or won’t pay TV licence, the price of it is outrageous and when you see the obscene salaries these charlatans earn
@Jonny: The are a propaganda medium for the government. Hence they are worth every penny..just not as far as the ordinary joe is concerned.
Maybe they should make the new Bank Of Ireland mortgage add
Big heads. Why not dispose of these overpaid prima donnas who pay little or no tax and replace them with trained radio/tv graduates who would be glad to accept a five year contract at 100,000€ per annum.
@Paul Coughlan: “pay little or no tax ”
How do you know?
@Richard Wright: He got millions for mining badly for years too
Why do they both look so red and sweaty in that photo
@Hoomanbean: the were watching cops (stepbrothers reference)
@Hoomanbean: Because they have both spent ages fu€king over the TV Licence payers.
@Hoomanbean: from carrying their wallets around?
Not even worth 40p a day. Given the option I wouldn’t even pay that.
RTE robbing pensioners to over pay these
Today FM had some tool on yesterday defending these outrageous payments. D4 accent but said everything like it was a question like Americans do. He said if they don’t pay them that much someone else will. How can someone be so deluded?? no one would pay 500K for Tubridy.
@Rob Cahill: The sad thing is we pay 500k a year for that dry shite
Tha women are not complaining that their wages are too low,they say they are getting a good wage so it’s time to reduce the male wages to the level of the women’s.rte were down €20m last yr and are looking for licence increase,but it’s time to cut costs as the public are still suffering from government austerity,they have suffered enough.
What a joke this country is
@Scorpionvenomm: stop whinging and vote with your feet, discard your tv.
Nice how Tubs neglected to say he has a brother, who is running the women’s World Cup.
@John Cusack: if that is the case… why would he mention that in this article… this isn’t a rugby article… that would be an unusual random piece of info to share I would think !
no wonder they are always smiling.
New late late show line up for the year:
Has been rugby players with monotone voice boring viewers to death about their ”grand slam glory”
WAGs of above promoting some tripe,
Dermot Bannon, Rachel Allen, Keet Duffy, Louis Walsh, Linda Martin, Operation Transformation ”heroes”, ”bloggers”…..can’t wait
Are they value for your License fee
Hey, Claire, Ryan, where were you both when the almost universally supported anti water privatisation movement was happening??
You both were nice little subservient minions, to your shame.
If Tubridy is so keen on equal pay for female presenters let him start by halving his own salary even at that he’s not worth it. He’s not even worth as much as Claire Byrne and she’s not worth what she is getting. I think they should be employed directly by RTE with an open and transparent pay scale with top no more than €100,000 – €150,000 depending on hours worked. One thing for sure they need to get rid of Tubs – he tried his hand in the UK for a summer couple of years ago and it didn’t work out. No TV company came looking for him. – Just shows how ‘talented’he is!
Will all the discussion about gender balance, why is there no discussion about a multi cultural balance on Rte. Is it just me, or is everyone white on Rte?
They should be happy. Neither of them would get a job anywhere. Tubridy id the most useless idiot on the air. He comes on every morning when that other useless clown is not ” standing in for him” and talks complete shit . He does a rubbish TV show part of the year and he is paid this ridiculous amount of money. Finucane is another who does two hours a week and most of the time she has “someone standing in”. RTE carries more passengers than Dublin Bus.
It’s beyond crazy that the Irish people are forced, with treat of jail, to pay these ridiculous salaries. Note to both of you, you are not worth it!
@paddlingAlong: threat
How man men and how man women work in RTÉ ?
Tubridy will be taking a pay cut to redress the difference? Some hope of that happening.
So sud women footballers get paid same as men haha
@Adrianholland: yes, they sud.
They all should be put on a FAS scheme as they only work 19.5 hours per week and be paid at he appropriate FAS weekly rate.
They should be well paid, their careers depend on high profiles and ratings. They pay the big taxes too..or should. Stop begrudging. Go after the bankers who are still screwing us
I think it’s ridiculous to have these type of people getting so much money for tv shows or radio shows the late late show is boring they have the same guests over and over again it’s just not fair when the half of ireland are sleeping rough with little kids with no place to live it’s such a shame to see Ireland like that the gap is getting bigger between rich and poor Ryan Tubirty and all these high earners they don’t think about all the homeless that don’t have food for their kids tomorrow when they wake up it’s so sad I am for one won’t be watching the late late show just the same as live line these poor people ringing up Joe telling him their problems when it goes in one ear and out the other if this is RTE and the future I am out and so is RYE licence
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