A beloved RTÉ star admitted he would like to be paid a little more amid the national broadcaster’s latest payment scandal.

RTÉ found itself in a new payment scandal earlier this month, after it had to update its highest-paid presenters list to include Derek Mooney, who was initially included as a producer — meaning he wouldn’t be included in the list.

The updated list now has Derek as the seventh highest paid presenter in the organisation last year, and the eighth in 2024, in a deal that Director General Kevin Bakhurst insisted ‘wasn’t a side deal.’

14/11/2023 Dublin Ireland. The RTE buildings in Donnybrook. RTÉ's Director General is to publish the organisation's new strategic vision later today, which includes a plan to reduce the workforce at the national broadcaster by up to 400 by 2028. Photo: Leah Farrell/© RollingNews.ie
A beloved RTÉ star admitted he would like to be paid a little more amid the national broadcaster’s latest payment scandal. Pic: Leah Farrell/© RollingNews.ie

In a new interview, Marty Whelan has since opened up on the matter — and admitted that he wouldn’t mind being paid more.

‘The easy answer [to the scandal] is there’s nothing you can do about it,’ Marty told the Irish Times. ‘The second answer is all these things are as much of a shock to me as they are to anybody else.

‘Of course I’d like to be paid more, particularly when I see what other people are on. In my case, when Winning Streak stopped because of COVID, clearly I didn’t get another contract for it,’ he added.

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Marty Whelan admitted that he would like to be paid more at RTÉ, but added that, of course, if he had more jobs there, he would be paid more. Pic: X/ Marty Whelan

Marty co-presented Winning Streak alongside Sinéad Kennedy, before the show aired its last episode in 2020, just before the COVID-19 pandemic. Marty is still on the airwaves as a presenter on Lyric FM, and commentated for RTÉ during the Eurovision.

‘If you’re supposed to be at Eurovision, and we don’t go, you’re not going to get a contract,’ he continued. ‘These are my understandings of how this business works. I would like to think that it works like that for everybody.’

As well as the correction that Derek Mooney was, in fact, one of the highest-paid presenters in RTÉ, the partner of the late Sean Rocks, who presented ARENA on RTÉ Radio 1, said that he (Seán) was also classified only as a producer in his separate contracts with RTÉ.

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RTÉ found itself in a new payment scandal after Derek Mooney (pictured) was put on the highest-earning presenters list, after he wasn’t initially placed on the list. Pic: RTÉ

Seán Rocks’ widow, Catherine Bailey, met with the Minister for Communications, Patrick O’Donovan, last week to raise her concerns, as the misclassification of Seán’s employment with RTÉ had significant financial implications for his family.

Minister O’Donovan, who asked RTÉ on his way out of the meeting whether there were ‘any more landmines,’ said he is pressing ahead with plans to place RTÉ under the oversight of the Comptroller and Auditor General.

Legislation, he said, will go before the Dáil in the coming weeks.