Ian Guider: Tumult over top ten earners obscures real issues at RTÉ

The national broadcaster is enjoying an unexpected boost during the pandemic, but it may have to look hard at its broadcast offering in the long term

Dee Forbes, director general of RTÉ, has outlined plans to seek €60 million worth of cuts over the three years to 2022. Photo: Maxwells Dublin

There’s always a certain level of prurience that greets the publication of the annual list of RTÉ’s highest-paid broadcasters. Montrose sometimes doesn’t help itself, though.

On this occasion, the decision to publish its top ten earners for 2017-2019 on the afternoon of the US presidential inauguration did nothing to dispel the feeling that the executives in RTÉ are not quite comfortable with the type of transparency that its own newsroom expects of similar institutions.

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