Derek Mooney among RTÉ’s 10 highest-paid presenters since 2020
By Cillian Sherlock, Press Association
RTÉ's Derek Mooney was paid enough to feature among the 10 highest-paid presenters every year between 2020 and 2025, according to new figures from the broadcaster.
Mooney had not been included in the annually published list as he was deemed to be a “producer” as per the terms of his contract.
On Thursday, RTÉ published its 2025 figures and included Mooney for the first time since 2014, saying it had reconsidered what constitutes a “presenter”.
It also republished revised figures for 2024 to allow for a year-on-year comparison.
Mooney featured eighth in 2024 and seventh in 2025, earning €197,151 and €202,264 respectively.
After calls to publish his earnings back to 2020, RTÉ published the figures which confirmed he would have featured in the yearly lists if the same criteria had applied at the time.
He earned €195,079 in 2020, €187,854 in 2021, €188,885 in 2022, and €192,592 in 2023 – all of which would have placed him ninth on the list.
The reclassification of Mooney as a presenter came in line with RTÉ’s implementation of the Government’s Expert Advisory Committee’s recommendations, after a previous financial management scandal over underdeclared payments to former Late Late Show host Ryan Tubridy.
RTÉ’s director general Kevin Bakhurst said Mooney’s exclusion from the list after 2020 was not part of a “side deal”.
He said the exclusion was seen as a “justifiable” decision by the organisation’s past management, given his contract as an executive producer, but added the current leadership had taken a different view because most people know him as a presenter.
In 2019, RTÉ announced plans to reduce fees paid to top contracted on-air presenters by 15 per cent.
Asked if the reclassification was a side deal to avoid pay cuts from 2020, Bakhurst said: “No, I don’t think it was.”
Asked if Mooney had taken a pay cut in 2020, Bakhurst said: “I don’t think he got a pay cut – but he was on the staff salary and he was on an executive producer role already by that stage.”
He said people were looking for “unfair ways to portray this”, adding: “I think the rationale was he fell out of the top 10 presenters in the few years up to 2020.
“As I understand it, in 2020 he would have been back in to the top 10, and they would have had to take a decision at that stage whether he was working (the) majority of the time as a presenter or as a producer, and clearly they looked at the balance of his work, as we have done recently, and the majority of it is producing.”
He said he had seen “no evidence” that the decision on whether Mooney would be included in the lists had any influence on him being affected by the 2020 pay cuts.
Bakhurst previously said RTÉ would not be publishing any updated lists prior to 2024.
The organisation had faced calls from Communications Minister Patrick O’Donovan and Media Committee chairman Alan Kelly to update the figures.
Mooney has been contacted for comment.
