Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions Dail Éireann — 2026-05-19 ============================================================ Mary Lou McDonald (SF), Dublin Central Fáilte, Austin. Deputy Carthy is telling me that Austin is a Monaghan man. The Ceann Comhairle missed the most important element of the story. Comhghairdeas agus fáilte. Three years on from the financial scandals that rocked RTÉ, the State broadcaster is once again embroiled in controversy. The latest debacle centres on RTÉ revising the list of its top ten highest earning presenters to include Mr. Derek Mooney. It transpires that Mr. Mooney should have been on the list for the last five years, but his salary of almost €200,000 was kept a secret by the top brass at RTÉ. Strangely, in 2020, Mr. Mooney's role was reclassified as a producer rather than a presenter, although the dogs in the street know that Derek Mooney is a presenter. RTÉ's top earners' list was incorrect eight years in a row - transparency out the window again. People will remember the secret payments and the slush fund controversies, scandals which revealed a shocking absence of oversight and governance, exposing a culture of arrogance and entitlement, RTÉ top brass flaithiúlach with the use of public money. Despite a massive bailout and big promises from the Government and from RTÉ, what really has changed? Once again, the Minister in charge of all of this, Deputy O'Donovan, knows nothing. All of this latest debacle is news to him. This morning he brought legislation to Cabinet to put the broadcaster under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General. This is years after the Committee of Public Accounts said that should happen; it is Government in slow motion. The Irish public bailed out RTÉ to the tune of €725 million, almost three quarters of a billion euro. That is a lot of taxpayers' money. However, there is little evidence of the change that people expected. Top management still plays fast and loose, not reporting accurately the big salaries of the high-flyers. Why is this? It is because the Government has failed to take on the prevailing culture of arrogance and privilege. The privileges gifted by the Government to RTÉ stands in stark contrast to how it treats working people and families. The budget of €9.4 billion last October left working people worse off, forced to watch every euro they spend, with their backs to the wall trying to keep up with rising prices, and doing all of the right things but still struggling to just get by. There is no bailout for them and no help from the Government but RTÉ top management is handed €750 million in public money and continues to take the taxpayers for fools. We have here a tale of two Irelands, with working people playing by the rules abandoned by the Government and told to tighten their belts, and top brass executives at RTÉ who believe the rules do not apply to them and believe they can do what they want without consequence. This needs to be nipped in the bud. The Government needs to sort this out, and fast. Rinne muintir na hÉireann RTÉ a tharrtháil le €725 milliún. Masla amach is amach is ea an chonspóid is déanaí d’oibrithe atá ag streachailt is ag comhaireamh gach uile phingin. Bringing RTÉ under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General is long overdue but it cannot stop there. People want accountability and consequences. Does the Taoiseach accept that the Government's failure to act decisively has allowed this bad behaviour at RTÉ and this culture of entitlement to continue? --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-05-19/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-09-28T05:50:46+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-19