The number of RTÉ workers earning more than €100,000 annually grew by more than a third in the last five years.Figures released by the broadcaster following queries from The Irish Times show that for total earnings – including pensions, salaries and allowances – there were 270 employees earning more than six figures at the organisation in 2020.That number grew to 315 in 2024 and again to 368 in 2025, a 36 per cent increase since 2020. An RTÉ spokesman said there were negotiated pay agreements in place over this period that mandated increased pay.It comes as RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst said the broadcaster had “paid a price” for transparency over presenter Derek Mooney’s earnings at the broadcaster.Speaking after a meeting with Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan, Bakhurst said the controversy was “frustrating”. “We have paid a price for that transparency which is the controversy in the past few days, and that’s disappointing for me because I do want to drive transparency,” he said.“If we pay that kind of price when we discover something we want to put right and put it in the public domain, it’s not an incentive to be more transparent.”O’Donovan, also speaking after the meeting, rejected the suggestion RTÉ was being punished for being transparent. He reiterated that he wanted the organisation to publish the full earnings for those working in Montrose – either through salaried work or through top-ups and allowances. RTÉ said last week it had decided to revise its top 10 highest earning presenters for 2024 to include Mooney after it “reconsidered what constitutes a presenter”. It said Mooney had previously been designated as a producer and not as a presenter over a period from 2020 to 2024. Montrose executives will appear before the Oireachtas media committee on Wednesday. On Tuesday, Cabinet approved draft laws bringing RTÉ under the supervision of the State’s spending watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General, alongside several other measures the Coalition said would improve transparency and oversight.O’Donovan said he was satisfied RTÉ had made his department aware of the issue over Mooney’s earnings in a timely manner, while Bakhurst said the issue that gave rise to the restatement was a “one-off”.“We don’t know of anything else, but it doesn’t stop us looking and if we discover something, we’re not going to hide it,” he said. There was also new scrutiny of the pay and conditions of former RTÉ presenter Seán Rocks, who died last year. It came after Labour’s media spokeswoman Marie Sherlock on Tuesday said RTÉ’s treatment of his pay had “significant financial implications” for his family after his death.[ RTÉ treatment of Seán Rocks pay had ‘significant financial implications’ for family, says TDOpens in new window ]Dublin Central TD Sherlock told The Irish Times she has been in contact with Rocks’s widow, Catherine Bailey, for some time.She said when Rocks took over as presenter of Arena he was put on a producer’s salary with an additional allowance covering his on-air role. Sherlock said it was her understanding that Rocks had repeatedly tried to resolve the situation and have himself classified as a presenter, and RTÉ had refused this.A spokeswoman for O’Donovan confirmed that he met Bailey on Monday as controversy builds over the classification of workers’ pay at the station.It is understood Bailey raised classification of Rocks’s employment with O’Donovan and told him it had had implications for her and her family since his death.Asked about Sherlock’s comments, RTÉ provided some general details of the pension and benefit schemes relevant after the death of an employee.“RTÉ has a group life assurance policy which pays 2.5 times insured pensionable pay on death in service,” a spokesperson said.“Salary for pension purposes in all RTÉ schemes is basic salary plus pensionable allowances, and these would be advised by RTÉ to the pensions administrators.“Currently in RTÉ’s DC [defined contribution] and 50/50 schemes a spouse’s death-in-service pension is paid based on pensionable salary and potential pensionable service. Children’s pensions are also payable.“Accumulated DC funds in both schemes are also payable on death subject to a potential service-related minimum payment of between one and one-and-a-half times salary.”