RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst has defended the broadcaster’s past decision to classify Derek Mooney as a producer rather than a presenter, while also standing over payments made to Claire Byrne and Ray D’Arcy after they stopped working on air last year.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland following the publication of the broadcaster’s 2025 annual results, Bakhurst said the earlier decision to classify Mooney as a producer was “perfectly justifiable” at the time, although RTÉ has now adopted “a different view” in the interests of transparency.
RTÉ confirmed this week that Mooney has been added to its list of highest-paid presenters for both 2024 and 2025 after the broadcaster reconsidered what constitutes a presenter for the purposes of compiling the annual Top Ten list. Mooney, who had previously been designated as a producer from 2020 to 2024, now appears eighth on the revised 2024 list with earnings of €197,151 and seventh on the 2025 list with a salary of just over €202,000.
Bakhurst explained that Mooney has spent decades employed under producer and executive producer contracts at RTÉ, despite being widely recognised by audiences as a presenter. He said RTÉ’s executive team in 2020 determined that because the majority of Mooney’s work involved producing, he should be classified as a producer rather than a presenter.
However, the broadcaster has now decided that staff in hybrid roles involving both producing and presenting should be listed as presenters if they qualify for the Top Ten salaries table.
“We think transparency is really important,” Bakhurst said. “Most people know Derek as a presenter, and I think we’d expect him to be classified as presenter, even if the majority of his work is as an executive producer.”
Bakhurst stressed that RTÉ had sought independent legal advice on the original classification and was told the decision made in 2020 was “a perfectly rational decision to take at the time”. He also noted that none of RTÉ’s current leadership team had been involved in the original decision.
The issue resurfaced only recently, according to Bakhurst, after “someone in finance” questioned whether Mooney had been correctly classified while preparing the broadcaster’s end-of-year accounts.
The controversy has also raised questions about whether the classification allowed Mooney to avoid a 15 per cent pay cut imposed on RTÉ’s highest-paid presenters in 2020 as part of a restructuring programme. Bakhurst rejected suggestions that the move was designed to protect Mooney’s salary.
“I think that’s a very unfair gloss to put on him,” he said, adding that Mooney was already employed on an executive producer contract at the time.
During the Morning Ireland interview, presenter Sarah McInerney noted that the maximum salary for an RTÉ producer in 2021 was approximately €90,000, suggesting much of Mooney’s earnings must still have related to presenting work. Bakhurst responded that Mooney’s role and salary had evolved over time as his responsibilities changed within the organisation.
Bakhurst also addressed criticism over RTÉ continuing to pay Byrne and D’Arcy after they stopped presenting programmes on Radio 1 in October 2025.
According to RTÉ, Byrne’s company, Derrough Media Limited, received approximately €47,000 after she ceased providing services on October 31st, while D’Arcy’s company, Whatnext Productions Limited, was paid around €50,000 after his departure on October 9th.
Byrne topped RTÉ’s highest-paid presenters list for 2025 with earnings of €280,000, while D’Arcy ranked fifth on €219,992.
Defending the payments, Bakhurst said both presenters remained under contract and that RTÉ was legally obliged to honour those agreements.
“Presenters, although they are paid a lot of money, they also have contracts, like anyone who has employment rights in Ireland,” he said. “If we decide we’re going to stop someone working for RTÉ, you can’t just chop off their salary.”
He added that entering into legal disputes with either presenter would likely have cost RTÉ significantly more.
Bakhurst said Byrne had originally offered to continue working until the end of her contract, which ran until the close of 2025, but RTÉ opted to end her programme earlier in order to launch a new Radio 1 schedule.
Speaking on her new programme on Newstalk, Byrne confirmed that she had been willing to remain at RTÉ until her contract expired but that the broadcaster decided to end her role in October instead.
Meanwhile, D’Arcy previously stated he had been “blindsided” by his departure from RTÉ, a claim disputed by RTÉ’s director of audio, Patricia Monahan.
Bakhurst emphasised that Mooney himself had “played no role” in the reclassification decision, saying the presenter had simply been informed of RTÉ’s decision and had continued with his work as normal.
