RTÉ Announce Top Ten 2019 Earners
RTÉ have announced the earnings of their top presenters for 2019. RTÉ have been committed to provided details of their top earners' salaries every year from the previous 2 years however RTÉ failed to publish these figures in 2020 and 2019. The ten personalities saw no change in their earnings from 2018, earnings in 2018 where 5% higher than in 2017, while earnings in 2017 were 1% higher than in 2016 while they got a 5% and 8% rise in 2016 and 2015, respectively.
RTÉ are quick to point out that "Total fees paid to RTÉ’s highest earning presenters represent less than 1% of RTÉ’s total operating costs." To put that in context RTÉ spent just 1% of their total operating costs on Children's programming in 2017.
The highest earner in 2019 was Ryan Tubridy host of the long running Late Late Show and a daily Radio show on RTÉ Radio 1, his earnings came to €495,000 no change from 2018. Ray D'Arcy was the second most paid presenter remaining at €450,000 in 2019. Liveline's Joe Duffy was in 3rd place with 393,000. The late Marian Finucane receive an increase of €25,000 to make 4th place, while former News presenter Sean O'Rourke received a €3,000 pay increase to bring him to €328,000.
Miriam O'Callaghan, Claire Byrne, Brendan O'Connor, Byran Dobson and Mary Wilson all made it into the top ten, but George Hamilton left the top ten earners list in 2019 from 2018.
| Personality | 2019 | 2018 |
|---|---|---|
| Ryan Tubridy | 495 | 495 |
| Ray D'Arcy | 450 | 450 |
| Joe Duffy | 393 | 405 |
| Marian Finucane | 358 | 333 |
| Sean O'Rourke | 328 | 325 |
| Miriam O'Callaghan | 320 | 322 |
| Claire Byrne | 250 | 250 |
| Brendan O'Connor | 220 | 240 |
| Bryan Dobson | 209 | 209 |
| Mary Wilson | 197 | |
| George Hamilton | 193 |