New presenters announced for RTÉ News

RTÉ NEWS announced that Sharon Tobin and Ray Kennedy have been made permanent presenters of the RTÉ Six One News and Nine O'Clock News respectively. 

Journalist Sharon Tobin will join David McCullagh as the new presenting team for RTÉ's flagship Six One News from Monday, while broadcaster Ray Kennedy will present the RTÉ Nine O'Clock News on rotation with Sharon Ní Bheolain. 

Announcing the new appointments, Director of RTÉ News & Current Affairs Deirdre McCarthy said: "For all of us who work in News & Current Affairs the flagship Six One News and Nine O'Clock News are among our most watched and valued television programmes and represent the best of our daily newsgathering and trusted public service journalism."

"Sharon and Ray join our dedicated News & Current Affairs presentation team who strive every hour of every day to tell honestly and clearly, with integrity and credibility, the stories that matter to you, your families and your communities. 

"Along with Eileen Whelan who will continue to anchor the One O'Clock News, our News & Current Affairs presentation team is a group of talented presenters who will continue to ask the probing questions, hold those in power to account and represent the public interest," she continued.

Sharon Tobin has been a regular news presenter in studio and for outside broadcasts in Ireland and abroad since joining RTÉ News, as a journalist and TV reporter in 2008. She has co-presented RTÉ television’s annual Budget coverage, hosted the current affairs programme Monday Night Live, and presented RTÉ News specials, including President Biden’s visit to Ireland in 2023.She has also presented RTÉ Radio 1’s This Week programme.

"I’m excited to be part of the team that will continue to bring accurate, trustworthy news to our audience, and ask the questions that people want answers to," she said.

Ray Kennedy has most recently worked with RTÉ since 2008 as a journalist and newscaster. He was shortlisted for Amnesty International Media Awards for reports about poverty in Brazil ahead of the Rio Olympics. In 2016 he won the overall television journalist category in the Justice Media Awards for coverage of the Gorse Hill repossession case. More recently he was part of the presenting team for RTÉ’s coverage of the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the coronation of King Charles and the recent visit to Ireland by President Joe Biden.

The Nine O'Clock News was previously presented by Eileen Dunne who has retired. In a statement Ray Kennedy said that; "I am filling massive shoes in taking up a role vacated by the wonderful Eileen Dunne and hope I can be equal to the task"

"I’m very excited the role also involves presenting special event programmes on RTÉ One as they occur and with my extraordinary colleagues in RTÉ News and Current Affairs, we will now move forward with doing what we do best and deliver for our audience."