RTÉ has paid more than €340,000 in guest fees over the past 12 months with The Late Late Show accounting for nearly 40 per cent of that spending.
The payments were made to contributors across a wide range of the public service broadcaster’s most popular TV and radio shows – but not to politicians or those promoting a film, album, programme or book.
The highest spend was Patrick Kielty’s The Late Late Show, which has run up €135,620 in guest fees since the comedian took over the hot seat from Ryan Tubridy. That money was shared between 170 different guests on the Friday night talkshow, or an average payment of around €800 per person.
The next highest bill was for RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne where guest fees totalled just over €60,000, according to figures released under the Freedom of Information Act. That covered the cost of 1,111 different guests on the popular radio show, or an average payment of just €54 per appearance.
Third in the fee table was Brendan O’Connor’s Sunday radio panel show where just under €40,000 was paid to 552 guests. The per person payment worked out at just over €72, an analysis of the figures showed.
There were also five-figure bills on radio for Drivetime with €27,757 paid to 648 different people and Morning Ireland where €35,412 was shared between 596 guests. Ray D’Arcy’s show on RTÉ Radio 1 ran up contributor costs of €18,946, paid to 177 people at an average rate of around €107.
Some shows had much smaller guest bills with €4,320 spent on Sunday with Miriam, just over €4,000 for the Six One News and €3,870 for Upfront with Katie Hannon. The lowest tab of all was the €479 spent by the Nine O’Clock News, which was paid to just six contributors at a rate of around €80 per person.
Overall, guest costs were €340,464 for 3,515 guests across 12 high-profile programmes with a per-contributor bill of €96.86.
Asked about the payments, a spokesman for RTÉ said: “In general, RTÉ pays for guests and contributors, including local and international journalists, artists, and musicians for the time they give to perform on or contribute to RTÉ programmes.
“However, where the guest is promoting a film, album, programme or book, no fee is usually paid. Political representatives are not paid a fee when they appear on RTÉ programmes.”
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