I'm Perry grateful

Caitriona helped David 'find his feet' in new Six One role

- MIKIE O'LOUGHLIN

RTE News presenter David McCullagh has praised his co-anchor Caitriona Perry for having his back in his new job.

The current affairs journalist co-presented Prime Time alongside Miriam for seven years before making the move to the station's flagship Six One news last September following the untimely passing of Keelin Shanley.

David told RSVP Live: "Caitriona and I had lunch together before I started and it was really helpful that she could mark my cards about a lot of different aspects of the job.

"She was very welcoming and we had long conversations about what we wanted to do with the programme and how we hoped it would develop

“There is great communication between us.

"I remember when I started on Prime Time and I said how helpful Miriam and Claire Byrne were and somebody said, 'Well, what did you expect them to be?' I thought "You obviously haven't worked in media before."