Challenge to Pat Kenny on live television no real surprise
Posted on 10/11/09 by Peter Kelly
I was among the thousands of people across the country who was glued to their televisions screens last night as Pat Kenny was verbally attacked by one his audience members on his new show Frontline. Amazingly, the outburst against Kenny, which centred on his high salary, continued for a full 3 to 4 minutes without interruption. It left everyone including the host visibly squirming.
While much of what the audience member said was lost in his emotional delivery, he did manage to get the thrust of his message across – that he found Pat Kenny’s pontificating on issues such as social welfare and wage cuts hypocritical in light of the fact that his own huge RTE salary is partly funded by the taxpayer.
Although I was shocked by the sudden manner in which events unfolded on the live show last show last night, I was not wholly surprised. It seems to me that it was only a matter of time before Pat Kenny was challenged on the issue of his salary by a member of the public. The contrast between the current financial position of RTE which is forecasting a shortfall of approximately €68 million this year and the huge sums it pays its top presenters is quite startling by any measure. It was revealed in October that Pat Kenny was RTE’s top paid presenter, earning close to a million in 2007 and 2008. He has since taken a pay cut but is still receiving a very sizeable salary of well over €600,000. Other high earners include Gerry Ryan who was paid close to 700,000 in 2007 and Marian Finucane who was paid 570,000 in the same year for her two weekend shows.
At a time when many have lost their jobs and others are facing pay cuts, it is hard to understand how such huge salaries are still warranted. It also smacks of hypocrisy for RTE’s top earners, whose salaries are partly funded from the taxpayer via the license fee, to question politicians over their own pay and expenses and the tough choices they will have to make coming up to the budget. While I think that Pat Kenny is very professional and good at his job, as he demonstrated last night by staying calm under fire, the outburst on Frontline certainly provided some food for thought.
Peter Kelly is a TD for Longford/Westmeath and Vice Chair of Oireachtas Communications Committee.
