Radio presenter Claire Byrne has talked about her inclusion in the RTÉ top ten highest-paid presenters list, as she ranked as the number one earner on the list
Claire Byrne on Newstalk(Image: Instagram/claireeby)
Claire Byrne has cleared up the ‘elephant in the room’ as she opened up her show on Newstalk for the first time since RTÉ released its top ten earners.
The radio presenter ranked number one on RTÉ’s top ten highest-paid presenters list that was released last night, where she made €280,000 in 2025.
Opening her morning show with Newstalk, Claire cleared up what she described as ‘the elephant in the room’.
“There’s another story in all of this which refers to me, which shows that RTÉ paid me for two months towards the end of last year, when I wasn’t on air with them.”
She then says she wants to explain to listeners how that happened.
“So, I resigned from RTÉ in the summer. My contract, though, ran until the end of the year, December 2025, and I made it clear I was happy to stay on and work there until the end of my contract, but RTÉ came to me and told me they wanted me to finish up at the end of October.
“That was their right, and their decision. So that’s how that happened, from my perspective.”
Claire then addressed the inclusion of Derek Mooney and RTÉ’s use of taxpayers’ money.
RTÉ revised the list to include those working in dual roles, such as producer-presenter, and Derek currently handles some presenting duties in addition to his work as a producer.
He now appears eighth on the 2024 list, with a salary of €197,151, while being seventh on the 2025 list, with earnings of €202,264.
Claire said: “Now RTÉ has revised its list of its top ten highest earning presenters for 2024 to include Derek Mooney, after it reconsidered what constitutes a presenter for the purposes of that list.
The Public Accounts Committee is also querying the use of taxpayers’ money by RTÉ to send 41 staff and contractors to Czechia, for the World Cup playoff semi-final.”
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