A former RTÉ producer says questions need to be asked about how some staff are on such high wages.
The salary figures for the top ten earners was revealed yesterday, with Ryan Tubridy coming in at number one, getting €495k in 2015.
Ray D'arcy, Joe Duffy, Miriam O'Callaghan and Marian Finucane round up the top five, while Sean O'Rourke comes in at number six on €290k.
Head of Journalism at DIT and former RTÉ producer, Kate Shanahan says the figures make it difficult for the broadcaster's calls for a licence fee hike.
"Can we ever justify a journalist doing a news-type presentation in a small country getting over €200k?" she said.
"I think those are questions that when they do their pay review on gender they're going to have to ask those sorts of questions as well."