The partner of the late RTÉ presenter Seán Rocks has spoken publicly for the first time about the precarious financial situation she and her two young sons are in.
The Oireachtas Media Committee was told this week that Seán was classified as a producer for RTÉ and paid a producer salary rather than a presenter, and was paid an additional allowance for his presenting duties. This is despite the fact he presented the RTÉ arts and culture radio show, Arena, for 16 years.
This treatment of his pay by RTÉ has meant his pension doesn’t reflect the money he actually earned from RTÉ, it was claimed, with the committee being told his family may have to “leave their house” as a result of the financial strain.
His partner, Catherine Bailey, has now spoken out for the first time about the way RTÉ treated his pay, saying it caused a great deal of stress to Seán, who repeatedly tried to get the matter resolved before his untimely death.
Catherine said Seán was her soul mate and they met through a mutual friend in Limerick. “We just hit it off like a house on fire. We had so much in common. He was attentive, he was warm, he was a magical man. A beautiful, warm and kind individual.”
She said they built a wonderful life together with their two sons. “We were just very happy in our simplicity, we were very ordinary people.”
His death shocked her. “It was beyond traumatic. It was very, very distressing… it was so sudden. We thought we’d come out of the woods with his health issues, and we felt we were on the upward trajectory… then for it to happen the way it did, so suddenly, it was very shocking, very distressing for me and the children.
“One of the worst things I had to do was tell the children their dad had passed away,” she told Today with David McCullagh on RTÉ Radio 1.
After Seán’s sad passing, Catherine had to get his affairs in order. She contacted RTÉ about his pension, and she said they came back to her “quoting a number which seemed completely out of whack to Seán’s earnings.”
Catherine questioned the number, but she said she was “reassured, rather coldly in a clinical letter, that no, this was it.”
She then contacted the RTÉ board of management, stating that she was at a loss as to how RTÉ calculated Seán’s pension, which seemed “too low” to her. “I said can you please clear this up for me, explain this to me… this is clearly a misclassification of the man.”
Catherine then got a letter from RTÉ’s HR, which said they can’t make an exception for her because it’s was an allowance issue, she claimed.
The classification of Seán’s pay “was a huge part of their lives”, she said. “It was something that really kept Seán up at night. He wanted to tidy up his situation for many the year. He’s been the broadcaster of Arena for 16 years… it needed to be tidied up, is how he would put it.
“Particularly when we were expecting our children, I said ‘Seán, we need to get this sorted’. Seán went into senior management numerous times to try and get this rectified. He said, ‘I’m being misclassified, I am not a producer, I shouldn’t be on this allowance situation with my main wage, can you please rectify this’.”
Catherine said unfortunately, the issue was never sorted. “Seán was classified as a contractor, despite working five days a week, all year round… he knew that left us vulnerable should anything happen to him. He wanted that tidied up and fixed, he just hit a brick wall.”
Catherine said he contacted friends and colleagues in a bid to resolve the situation. “It really got him down, it took a large toll on him… he was so committed and loyal to the organisation. He just couldn’t fathom why his wages were left like that.”
Catherine said Seán had worked for RTÉ since 2000, and he missed out on making a lot of pension payments due to the way he was classified. She added that Seán didn’t have outside gigs and all he had was his RTÉ income. “He got a very modest wage.”
“I’m a single mother now with two young children left in this precarious situation… it will impact my life. Going forward, I need this money for their future. I think Seán would have wanted them to be looked after.
“We are good people, honest, hard-working people and we just wanted what is fair. He worked exceedingly hard, he had such pride in his work, he loved the artists of this country, he actually loved RTÉ and all the workers in there… Seán deserved better.”
She added that she never wanted to go public but had been forced into this situation.
In a statement read out on air, RTÉ said Seán Rocks was employed as a presenter with RTÉ from 2010 until his untimely death in 2025. “We have engaged with Catherine Bailey frequently since with respect to her entitlements under RTÉ’s group life scheme for all employees and Seán’s pension payment, and we remain available to her.
“We continue to express our deepest condolences to Catherine and the rest of the Rocks family.”
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