The salaries of RTÉ's top broadcasters will be debated by the Oireachtas this week.

In the wake of the controversy surrounding the station’s hidden payments to Ryan Tubridy, a bill will be debated by Seanad Éireann which would cap broadcasters’ salaries at the same level of a Cabinet minister.

Addressing the controversey, Minister for Public Expenditure Paschal Donohoe said he was unsure whether he would support such a measure or not.

“I’m not in a position today to say whether there should be a cap in relation to broadcasters’ salaries,” Minister Donohoe said.

“I would want to know what would be the impact of that in RTÉ, what would that mean for their ability to deliver their mandate.”

Members of the NUJ union protesting at RTÉ studios in Dublin over Ryan Tubridy's financial arrangements and money payments. Picture by: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Media Minister Catherine Martin has announced her intention to appoint a private auditor to examine the broadcaster’s finances and People Before Profit’s Paul Murphy has said the controversy shows why RTÉ should be fully funded by the public.

“I really think the outcome - ultimately - needs to be to end the reliance on commercial revenue and instead properly publicly fund a public service broadcaster,” Deputy Murphy said.

“Which should not be done through this regressive licence fee but instead should be done through general progressive taxation and a specific digital services tax on the big digital technology companies.”

The RTÉ logo at the station in Donnybrook, Dublin 4, 26-06-2023. Image: Leah Farrell/RollingNews

RTÉ staff are also concerned about reports of job cuts, 2FM being sold off and that the broadcaster could even be split in two.

“Staff will have been reading the papers at the weekend and many will have been very concerned and upset at what they were reading,” RTÉ correspondent and NUJ trade unionist Emma O'Kelly said.

“There were an awful lot of kites flown in the papers.

“In the midst of this, I just think we really need to go back to the lessons learned last week and, if anything, what last week has exposed is the weakness of a commercial strategy where people at the very top of an organisation are feathering their own nests at the public expense.”

Minister Ossian Smyth has said there is “no question” of job cuts being forced on the broadcaster.

Last week, Brian Stanley, chair of the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee, said the body could compel Ryan Tubridy to testify before it and had been "armed" with the powers to do so.

Main image: Ryan Tubridy at RTE studios in Dublin in 2018.