RTÉ spends €360k on TV and radio guest fees in a year
Ken Foxe
RTÉ paid out more than €360,000 in fees to guests and contributors for its top TV and radio shows over the past twelve months.
More than a third of the cash was spent on Patrick Kielty’s Late Late Show where €128,500 was doled out for appearances on the Friday night show.
RTÉ said that money was shared between one hundred different guests across thirty episodes, with an average payment of nearly €1,300.
However, they said in some cases, a single fee covered bands or musical acts so some of the individual payments were for multiple people.
The next highest bill was for Today with Claire Byrne where guest costs came to over €68,000 between July 2024 and June 2025.
RTÉ said that covered appearances by 1,270 different contributors with the average payment working out at just €54.
There were guest bills of €48,500 for the Brendan O’Connor Show with 642 guests paid around €75 each for taking part.
Morning Ireland ran up €39,000 in costs with an average payment of around €63 for 624 people who contributed to the show.
The lowest per-guest fees were on RTÉ Drivetime where around €28,500 was paid to 638 guests, roughly €45 per person.
The average payment for an appearance on Sunday with Miriam was €147; overall costs were €5,868 for forty contributors.
Other guest bills included €21,500 for the Ray D’Arcy Show, €12,277 for Primetime, and €5,554 for the Six One News.
There were also small costs of €952 for the Nine O’Clock News and €3,077 for current affairs show Upfront, which was cancelled earlier this summer.
RTÉ said they could not provide details of costs for the Tommy Tiernan Show as an independent production company made it.
They said fees were paid to guests and contributors, including local and international journalists, artists, and musicians for the time they gave up taking part in a show.
However, people promoting films, albums, programmes, or books were not usually paid nor were political representatives who appeared on TV or radio.
A spokeswoman for RTÉ added: “Contributor fees are a necessary and industry standard part of production to add strength and depth to a wide variety of programmes and content from expert opinion, to on the ground reporting from war zones and musical contributors for entertainment programmes.
“RTÉ seeks a variety of contributors from a diversity of backgrounds and pays them accordingly for their expertise and time which enhance our offering to the audience.”