IT WAS WHAT THE MINISTER WOULDN’T SAY THAT FORCED THE CHAIR’S RESIGNATION
LATE-NIGHT ministerial interviews rarely make waves.
Most of them are focused on the issue of the moment, or they end a long day of interviews by Cabinet members about whatever particular set-piece policy issue they are announcing or working on.
However, Thursday night was not one of those nights.
Media Minister Catherine Martin went live on RTÉ’s Prime Time and refused to say she had confidence in Siún Ní Raghallaigh, the chair of the RTÉ Board, over the chairwoman’s apparent mistake in forgetting to tell the Minister that the remuneration board did, in fact, have oversight of the exit deal with Richard Collins, RTÉ’s former chief financial officer.
The move set off an extraordinary chain of events that led to the 1am resignation of Ms Ní Raghallaigh.
Below sets out the key moments in yet another rollercoaster 24 hours for Minister Martin and the top brass of RTÉ.
A PRIME TIME THURSDAY EVENING
Prior to the Minister’s interview, senior Government advisers were notified that Ms Martin would say that she was calling Ms Ní Raghallaigh in for another meeting over some confusion regarding Mr Collins’s exit package.
They were insistent that the note on Mr Collins’s exit package was light on detail and that it came late in the day. This knowledge was crucial, as the leaders would therefore have known that Ms Martin was about to publicly criticise the chair of the board.
At around 9.40pm on Thursday night, Ms Martin began her interview with Miriam O’Callaghan.
She said that it was her ‘understanding’ at the time of the meeting on Monday that the RTÉ board had ‘no approval’ of the two exit packages for Rory Coveney and Richard Collins.
The Minister told how she ‘queried’ with the chair whether
there was ‘100% certainty’ that there was no approval by the board of these packages.
‘I was again reassured that this was the case,’ she said.
Crucially however, she then went on to say: ‘It has been made known to me now [on Thursday]; that the second exit package relating to Mr Collins did go through the remuneration committee.’
She said she was ‘deeply disappointed’ at this revelation and said it was ‘not satisfactory’.
Ms Martin added: ‘The significance is, you know, as I’ve said, in every interview that I’ve done, since this crisis emerged, I’ve said my direct line is with the chair of the board.’
‘And if I got the incorrect information, I did ask on two occasions: on a Monday meeting, and again on a Wednesday meeting.
To find out this morning [Thurs- day] that it was the incorrect information, that it was indeed approved by the remuneration committee in which the chair sits and indeed chairs of that committee. That is of concern.’
Asked if she had lost confidence in the chair of the board, she said: ‘I’m deeply disappointed as I’ve said already. But I think it’s only right that Siún, having done such incredible work and Herculean efforts, especially since the crisis emerged in June, that she’s afforded the opportunity to talk to me so I won’t comment further on that, but I’m just saying I’m deeply disappointed.’
Critically, the Minister was asked whether her department had known of this exit package before. Perhaps fatefully, she said: ‘We [the Department] were not aware that there was approval by the remuneration committee.
‘I would have an awareness in the Department that there were legalities very complex and that there was a package, and that it wasn’t a straightforward resignation. But outside of that, no.
‘And to not be informed that the board through the remuneration committee had a role in this...’
She said that she was disappointed to be ‘misinformed’ on two occasions.
The interview was immediately picked up by all outlets, with push notifications of the news pinging on smartphones nationwide.
One minister who was not watching the interview, due to other commitments, said that when they finally checked their phone, it had ‘exploded’ with messages asking whether he had
SIÚN’S RESIGNATION STATEMENT – 1AM ON FRIDAY
At ten minutes to one in the morning, the bombshell dropped. Ms Ní Raghallaigh was resigning.
She said it was ‘abundantly clear’ from Ms Martin’s interview that she ‘no longer’ had the ‘confidence of the minister in my role as chair of the board’.
She said her position was ‘no longer tenable’.
‘This evening, after consultation with the board and director general Kevin Bakhurst, I have decided to resign from my position.’
Picking up on Ms Martin’s assertion that her department was ‘not aware’ that there was approval by the remuneration committee, she added that she had in fact informed the Department about the process which led to Mr Collins’s departure from RTÉ, on October 10, the day after it was approved at the remuneration committee.
RTE’S STATEMENT
RTÉ came out fighting on Friday morning. In a statement to the Claire Byrne show, they reiterated Ms Ní Raghallaigh’s key point that the chair had ‘in fact’ informed the Department about the process which led to Richard Collins’s departure from RTÉ on October 10, the day after it was approved at the remuneration committee which has delegated powers from the board.
‘This detail was taken as read although it seems now that it shouldn’t have been.’
RTÉ also noted that after checking the minutes of the remuneration committee, the chair ‘moved swiftly to correct this detail’ with Department officials on Thursday, and ‘remind them that the correct process had been followed, and that the chair had previously informed the Department of same.’
In her interview with Prime Time, at no point did Minister Martin allude to the fact that her Department had been informed of RTÉ’s decision with regards to Mr Collins in October.
This left the Minister open to the accusation that she was deliberately throwing the chair of RTÉ under the bus.
THE DIRECTOR GENERAL’S STATEMENT
In a note to staff yesterday morning, Kevin Bakhurst said that Ms Ní Raghallaigh told him her decision to resign was ‘understandably unsettling’ for everyone in RTÉ.
While some sources said there were early morning jitters that Mr Bakhurst may himself resign in protest, he went on to add: ‘I want to reassure you that I also believe in RTÉ, and our collective future. My role, now more than ever, is to bring stability to the very regrettable chaos that continues to threaten all attempts to move forward.’