“I hope that you can trust me.”
RTÉ’s Claire Byrne revealed her salary live on air on Monday morning (26 June) as she addressed the ongoing controversy surrounding the reporting of Ryan Tubridy’s earnings. Miriam O’Callaghan has also released a statement on the matter.
Her comments come after the RTÉ Board last Thursday revealed that Tubridy’s annual earnings between 2017 and 2022 had been understated by the broadcaster.
The RTÉ Board said that Tubridy was paid over €300,000 more during this time than initially declared. It then issued an apology over the matter, describing it as “a serious breach of trust with the public”.
Claire Byrne reveals current salary live on air amid Tubridy controversy.
Returning to her radio programme after having been absent from the show last Thursday and Friday, Byrne stated that her most recently published annual salary of €350,000 is “correct”, along with “those published in the past”.
She explained that she took a €70,000 pay cut when she stepped down from hosting the TV show Claire Byrne Live on RTÉ 1 last year, but confirmed that she is still earning €280,000.
Byrne also revealed that she earned a separate €25,000 for hosting the TV quiz show Ireland’s Smartest, which ran on RTÉ 1, and that she was sharing these figures in a bid to earn listeners’ trust.
“I acknowledge that fee is significant and way beyond what many people could hope to earn. There are others who will, no doubt, have more to say about it I am sure, but my personal decision here this morning is to be open and honest with you,” she said in the opening of her show.
Byrne said that with her fee comes a duty to treat her position with respect, adding:
“I hope that you can trust me and the team of journalists I work with, to cover this story with the same rigour and balance as we would any other story on this programme.
“As programme makers, our aim is to be consistent, fair, and professional and to respect the hard-earned trust that you, the audience, have in us,” she also told her listeners.
Byrne stressed that she knew nothing about Tubridy’s additional payments, stating: “I wasn’t even aware that presenters’ fees, including my own, were subjected to a Grant Thornton review. I knew absolutely nothing about it.”
As well as this, she explained that her absence from radio last week was not related to the ongoing controversy, but was instead down to a planned family trip.
A personal statement pic.twitter.com/tdhmCLvFLy
— Miriam O'Callaghan (@MiriamOCal) June 26, 2023
Miriam O’Callaghan statement.
Later on Monday, RTÉ presenter Miriam O’Callaghan published a statement where she revealed her salary and said that she has never “received additional payments from RTE that were not publicly declared.”
“For the purpose of transparency, honesty and clarity, I want to put on the record that my most recently published fee from RTE – 263,500 euro – is correct, as are the published fees for previous years. I have never received additional payments from RTE that were not publicly declared.
“It’s hard to put into words how incredibly sad I have been since this story broke last Thursday. I had no idea this was coming down the tracks. I feel you, our listeners and viewers, have been badly let down. I love RTE – it’s a wonderful place to work, full of superb people who work very hard and conscientiously every day to deliver good programmes. Right now, there’s profound shock, anger and sadness among everyone working there.
“All we can do as journalists now, is cover this story as rigorously as we cover every other story. That’s what we did on Prime Time last Thursday, on the day the story first broke, and that is what we will continue to do.”
Read more:
- Dee Forbes resigns as RTÉ director general amid Ryan Tubridy payment controversy
- Ryan Tubridy was reportedly in talks for TV comeback prior to RTÉ scandal
- RTÉ respond to reports of ‘€50 million kickbacks’
- RTÉ understated Ryan Tubridy’s earnings for six years, admits ‘serious breach of trust’
- Ryan Tubridy issues statement responding to RTÉ payment controversy
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