Pat Kenny says political criticism of RTÉ ‘hard to take’ given children’s hospital cost overruns

Broadcaster Pat Kenny has praised Noel Kelly, the agent he shares with Ryan Tubridy, for his “exemplary service”, while saying there had been “schadenfreude in spades” on the part of politicians about the fate of RTÉ.

Speaking about the pay controversy on his Newstalk radio show on Monday, Kenny defined the German word as “the experience of pleasure, joy or self-satisfaction that comes from learning or witnessing the troubles, failures or humiliation of another”.

The schadenfreude was mostly from the political side, he said.

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Kenny contrasted the overspend in building the new children’s hospital — which he put at €1.5 billion — with the €5,000 RTÉ spent on 200 pairs of flip-flops for its advertising customers.

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“It’s hard to take,” he said.

“There’s an element of this, and I was watching this from afar, so I wasn’t caught up in the Liveline calls and the calls to Lunchtime Live here of what people were saying. So, I was watching it from afar and there was a word that kept cropping up in my mind and that word was schadenfreude. Politicians interfering is not ever a good idea.”

Kenny remains to date RTÉ's highest-ever earner. His salary peaked at €950,000 in 2008. When he left RTÉ in 2013, his salary was €728,417.

The broadcaster said Mr Kelly had been his agent since he joined Newstalk 10 years ago.

“I have got exemplary service from Noel — no complaints. Him and his team were fantastic. Ryan Tubridy started his career as a cub reporter on my radio show. Hard work, diligence and honesty were his hallmark. I want to declare that as well.”

[ RTÉ pay crisis: Decision has to be made on Ryan Tubridy’s future ‘soon’ — Kevin Bakhurst ]

Kenny added that he had been on holiday for the last couple of weeks and did not want to comment on what was going on until he returned home.

“I apologise to my journalistic colleagues. I thought when they heard the foreign ringtone that they would leave me alone, but they didn’t,” he said. “Talk to one, talk to everybody, so I talked to nobody.”

Kenny said he served on the board of RTÉ at the request of a previous minister with responsibility for communications.

The agenda for the board was usually set between the director general and the chairman. “The board makes very few kind of day-to-day decisions,” he said.

When he was in RTÉ he recalled that was predominantly driven by commercial revenues “with the licence fee paying for news, some sporting events and drama that couldn’t wash its face. The commercial side has been slowing down. The licence fee collection has not always been exemplary. They have reached a crisis point as to where they go from here.”