Morning Ireland co-host Cathal Mac Coille has revealed how tough he and his fellow presenters find it bringing economic doom and gloom to the nation each day.

An experienced print journalist before joining RTÉ, Mac Coille says he faces the same fatigue some members of the public are suffering.

"I was saying to Áine [Lawlor] at one stage during the week, sometimes I get the feeling when things are really, really bad – which they are some mornings – I get the feeling I have been sent to some trouble spot, a news story which is not exactly a disaster but it's bad news and I'm in the middle of it."

He shared his views with listeners last week telling them: "In case you're wondering , yes we do find the news depressing. I have been talking to listeners who say to me that some mornings they find it too much, they switch off or listen to Lyric FM."

Mac Coille told the Sunday Tribune: "All I said on Tuesday was, this isn't easy for us either. That a couple of people said to me and were saying to me on emails – some were angry and some were frankly unreasonable in a sense – 'the news is too depressing'. Well , what can we do about it? We're not there to make the news.

"But others are saying they find it too much. That they either turn the radio off some mornings or listen to Lyric FM. They just can't take it. Now they weren't saying that often but some mornings it all gets too much and I think that attitude is out there and I can understand why."

The father of four says that, while he doesn't shirk from his job of breaking the bad news day after day, he has personal knowledge of some of the people affected by the job cuts and rise in unemployment.

"What I expressed during the week was the reaction of a journalist who is finding himself in the middle of a really serious story which has implications for everyone, including all the people you know as well as the listeners who get on to you with reactions.

"We all, at this stage, have relations or friends who have lost their job or have children who are either at the end of their school careers or into third-level and for whom this is a very hard time. Because two years ago, the world was their oyster. You could do anything in Ireland... You could choose any career and everything would be fine and now everything is the opposite of that," he said.