The TD first cousin of Ryan Tubridy has slammed the star's €150,000 pay rise last year to over €500,000.

Fianna Fail TD for Dublin South East Chris Andrews said the level of salaries paid to the top 10 stars in RTE are "outrageous in the extreme" and that they should be capped at €250,000.

"It's no wonder people are angry, and they are angry that such lavish salaries are being paid out. It's irrelevant that Ryan Tubridy is my cousin, no one deserves to be paid such ludicrous money. Look at what happened to the country last year and he got a pay rise of over €150,000. It's outrageous. We should not be held to ransom, if they want to go off to the UK or the USA, then let them."

Mr Andrews added that such stars have no credibility when talking about extravagant waste in the banks or in public life, given how much they get paid, and he said they are hypocritical in the extreme.

"They sit in their ivory towers preaching about stuff like the banks or John O'Donoghue, but their salaries clearly show they are hypocritical and are seen as such by the general public."

Meanwhile, Communications Minister Eamon Ryan has admitted that the lavish salaries paid to top RTE stars were "totally excessive" and that they "should not happen again". Speaking yesterday at the RDS where the Green Party was holding its convention, Mr Ryan said he agreed with Director General Cathal Goan's assessment that the salaries paid were excessive and belonged to another era.

"The pay levels are excessive, particularly in the present times and the Irish people have that strong sense. Like a lot of people we are going to have to cut our cloth to a different measure and RTE are aware of that reality."

When asked should salaries be capped, he responded: "I think certainly, yes, they should not continue in any form like that anymore."

The Sunday Independent can also reveal this weekend that RTE's biggest rival TV3 pays it's on-screen talent a fraction of what the State broadcaster dishes out.

Well-placed sources have confirmed that TV3's on-screen talent are paid between €35,000 and €80,000 per annum.

The Xpose team, which regularly attracts over half a million viewers a week, get paid between €35,000 and €45,000, while members of the Ireland AM team, which brings in over 800,000 viewers a week, earn a maximum of €80,000 per year.

Following the release of the top 10 earner list, TV3 boss Andrew Hanlon slammed RTE management for having "no balls" to deal with its staff and encouraged Montrose bosses to call the bluff of big earners such as Pat Kenny and Gerry Ryan.

"There isn't a private radio or TV station in Ireland that would even consider paying salaries akin to that of RTE's highest-paid presenters. Their combined salaries amount to the operating budgets of an entire local radio station or twice or three times the budget of INN, which went out of business last week with the loss of 16 jobs.

"If I was running RTE, I would tell the talent, I'm cutting your salaries by at least 50 per cent -- now take it or leave it. If they want to walk -- let them walk. That's what they're worth, because no one else would pay them any more. Quite simply, RTE management has no balls by its refusal to stand up to the talent and tell them who's in charge."

He added: "Now that the spotlight is on RTE salaries, where is the debate about it on RTE programmes? I've heard nothing about it so far this weekend on any RTE programme," he said.

"It didn't even make the news headlines on Friday night's nine o'clock news, the story was buried in part two. Will it feature as the lead item on Liveline with Joe Duffy on Monday? -- I doubt it somehow."

Shortly after the top 10 earners list was made public, Pat Kenny, who earned close to €2m in two years, released a statement saying he had reduced his annual earnings to €630,000, similar to the 2002 levels.

RTÉ's director general Cathal Goan said there was "no question that by today's standards" the salaries paid to its top presenters last year "were excessive". "I have to repeat that they were set at a different time in a different competitive reality where some of this talent might be up for poaching by other organisations, and in RTE's view at the time, they delivered value for money," he told RTE News.

The current Late Late Show host, Ryan Tubridy, earned €533,333 last year, compared to €366,867 in 2007.

Liveline host Joe Duffy was paid €408,889 last year and was paid €377,648 the year before.

Pundit and journalist Eamon Dunphy earned €328,051 last year and €285,915 in 2007.

Other top earners at Montrose last year included Gerry Ryan, who brought home €629,865; Derek Mooney (€286,809); commentator George Hamilton (€219,833); and News At One presenter Sean O'Rourke (€218,656). Critic and DJ John Kelly earned €215,636 in 2007 but failed to make the list last year.

Commenting on her pay of €301,667 last year, broadcaster Miriam O'Callaghan said: "We live in a different county from a year ago . . . I have been sensitive to that by taking a pay cut quickly."

- NIAMH HORAN and DANIEL McCONNELL

Sunday Independent