Gay Byrne ‘kept wages down’ at RTE as he thought it was ‘immoral’

Former Late Late Show musical director, Frank McNamara, has claimed that the late Gay Byrne was instrumental in keeping wages low at RTE.

He believed it was “immoral” for presenters to earn large sums of money. McNamara worked alongside the broadcasting icon, who sadly passed away from cancer in 2019 at the age of 83, for two decades.

In a candid chat with us, McNamara shared: “He was fantastic. If he had a problem with you, he would tell you. Straight up to your face and that would be the end of it. And if you had a problem with him , it didn’t matter that you were his boss, you’d say it to his face, you’d deal with it together and it is over.

Read more: RTE Late Late Show ex musical director says Kevin Bakhurst’s ‘anti-talent stance’ is ‘deplorable’

Read more: Family pay heartfelt tribute to Gay Byrne on fourth anniversary of his death

“He never held a grudge. Ever. It was out in the open. It was dealt with. He kept the wages down for everybody because he thought it was immoral to earn too much money.”

According to McNamara, Byrne – who earned €201,888 on retainer from RTE wasn’t earning much when he first started out. He added: “Not at the beginning, no. Not for a long time. He wasn’t on huge money and anyone who looked for a raise, the line from management was, ‘Who do you think you are, Gay Byrne? He doesn’t even earn that much’.”

Byrne hosted the Late Late Show from 1962 to 1999 and in his penultimate year as presenter he was paid almost €500,000. This revelation comes after McNamara, who is set to play 46 concerts from July at the INEC in Killarney, weighed in on high profile presenter’s salaries.

He stated that it’s nobody’s business what the talent are earning outside of RTE in the wake of its new Register of Interests, which will be out next month. Mr McNamara shared with us: “It is not a matter of public interest what anyone gets for an ad.

“Their wage in RTE is public money but if somebody is paying them for a gig that is a different issue. Back when Theresa [Lowe] was doing Where in The World, she wasn’t allowed to do an ad. It just wasn’t done. Nobody did it.

“I think RTE public money should be a matter of public record but after that, how much you earn is your own business. But there is an issue and this is why it wasn’t allowed before if you weren’t working for RTE, if you didn’t have a radio broadcast every day or if you didn’t have or a big TV show, nobody would ask you to do an ad.”

Previously, Mr McNamara had criticised RTE boss Kevin Bakhurst’s comment that no one should make more than the director general. He said at the time: “I think the worst thing that Kevin Bakhurst has said in my opinion is that no one is RTE should earn more than him.

“There was always that kind of attitude from some members of the upper echelons of the management. Like ‘Why should you be earning so much money? Why should Gay Byrne be on that kind of money when anyone could do that…’ kind of attitude. But it isn’t like that.

“It takes talent. It takes something very, very special to be able to do the kind of thing Patrick Kielty does or whoever. There are loads more people who can do what Kevin Bakhurst does than what Paddy Kielty does. That’s supply and demand.

If there is only a small handful of people that can do what Paddy Kielty does on The Late Late Show well then surely that has to be worth more than the hundreds of thousands of people that could do what Kevin Bakhurst is doing.

“Sure every company has a Kevin Bakhurst. How else do you value anything? Like if you’re buying a house and there is only one of its kind in the world, it is going to be very valuable.

“The value is in the exclusivity and the rarity of the talent that you possess. I thought his anti-talent stance, if you like, was deplorable really. There are loads of people who could do what he does. I’m not taking from the man. I’ve never met him, I don’t know anything about him.”

“He could be fantastic at his job but so is the head of AIB, so is the head of Kerry Group. They’re all fantastic at their jobs, otherwise they wouldn’t be there. But there are loads of them. They are ten a penny. They are turning them out of the Smurfit Business School, every year.”

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