The whole country is talking about the s*&t show, not the Toy Show, at RTE

It seems like it was the greatest gravy train to be on for senior staff and their select clients.

There was great pageantry in Dublin city over the weekend when hurling took over Croke Park, but we’re not sure if there was any RTE hospitality on show this time.

The top brass in RTE are far more interested in the oval ball anyway, spending €140,000 on Aviva rugby tickets and sending six lucky sods to the Japan Rugby World Cup at a whopping cost of €111,000, partly funded of course by you, the humble TV licence payer.

And when they’re not using licence payers’ dust on entertaining themselves and clients, they’re making sure their pockets are well-lined when they are sitting at home.

The latest figures we have relate to 2021 and they showed that there were 119 staff in RTE getting paid over €100,000.

And that’s just basic pay, not counting any extra allowances, such as maybe a car allowance, which we were told at a Dail committee grilling of RTE suits during the week was €25,000 for Chief Financial Officer, Richard Collins.

But at least that perk, on top of a €200,000 salary, was declared by Mr Collins, whereas Marty Morrissey’s was not, because of course it was just ‘loaned’ for five years.

The executives most of us have never heard of at RTE are really milking it, with ten listed as pulling over €200,000 on a list of top earners, which was of course anonymised to save the blushes of those faceless fat cats.

But while RTE was getting dragged over the coals all week, and rightly so, there was another set of accounts released that managed to slip under the radar a bit.

These were the detailed spending records of that other big public behemoth, the HSE.

The bloated health service enjoys a bulging budget of almost €21billion a year and this only goes up, with supplementaries for hundreds of millions more an annual call from the Health Minister of the day.

Whether we get value for money or not is debatable, especially when you compared it to other jurisdictions, like the UK for example.

The NHS had a budget last year of €190billion, but with a population ten times our own to serve, that’s actually cheaper than our own pro rata.

Oh, and don’t forget, healthcare is almost completely free across the water and up North, whereas down here we prop up the health service by half of us paying health insurance.

Now I don’t like making people angry on a Monday morning as they start their week with a read of this column, but this just might make your blood boil as hot as your cup of tea.

The numbers in the HSE earning over €100,000 has rocketed as the cost of living crisis took hold over the past year.

You, the taxpayer, directly paid 4,790 HSE staff over the ton last year, up from the 3,982 that took home €100k basic the year before.

This is a whopping increase of 808, or nearly 25%, it’s scary stuff.

And it gets even more sick, or healthy if you’re on one of the inflation-busting salaries, when we learn that of the almost 5,000 in the €100k club, 352 of them cleared between €250,000 and €500,000 for their public sector duties.

One of them of course was the former chief executive, Paul Reid, who got €400,000 during his last year at the helm.

But the rest of them, apart from medics, are mostly faceless fat cats, just like in RTE.

The RTE gravy train is only a toy set compared to the snowpiercer that is the HSE.

Alan Kelly turns blue at mention of the true Red joining the Blueshirts

It’s becoming almost a perennial rumour, Alan Kelly is joining Fine Gael.

But don’t get too excited folks, it is, of course, absolute horse manure.

The rumour started circulating on Wednesday night in the Dail Bar, then it was widespread by Thursday morning.

One former Fine Gael minister told a few on the corridors, ‘did ye hear, Kelly is joining us, it’s great, will solve a problem we have in Tipperary.’

But unfortunately for FG’s inner turmoils in Tipp, AK47 (an old nickname for Kelly) won’t be joining the ranks of the Blueshirts anytime soon.

A source very close to this column said on Thursday, ‘who’s spreading all that? Alan wouldn’t join those cretins if they were the last party on earth.’

37 year old Helen McEntee letting her hair down in Bar 37

Fair play to the youthful Justice Minister Helen McEntee, she’s still able to let the hair down when she needs to.

The woman who is favourite to be the next Fine Gael leader with many smart punters has always loved to socialise and the pressure of the top job has not dimmed this passion.

It was no surprise then to hear reports that Ms McEntee, the first woman ever to take maternity leave while a senior minister, was out and about last Wednesday night.

And where better for the 37 year old political star to meet with pals than Bar 37 on Dawson Street in Dublin city centre.

The late night watering hole is a particular favourite with our national politicians, as it’s only a stone’s throw from Leinster House around the corner on Kildare Street.

And of course the fact that it has a late licence on weeknights for when some of our hard-working (and hard-playing) finish their parliamentary duties near midnight helps too.

Quote of the Week

“Let me entertain you” Fine Gael Kerry TD Brendan Griffin’s flabbergasted response to the revelations of RTE hospitality for clients, including Robbie Williams concert tickets.

ENDS