PAC report to recommend no secret exit deals for executives
A REPORT by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) is to recommend that no confidentiality agreements be allowed on exit packages at RTÉ.
The report, due to be published today, is expected to make over 20 recommendations for new controls, procedures and oversight of the national broadcaster after months of interrogations by TDs on the committee.
The PAC have had representatives from RTÉ before them on three occasions for over a dozen hours in total since the station admitted to paying Ryan Tubridy €345,000 more than was publicly disclosed, opening a series of governance issues at the broadcaster.
The committee have also used four independent external reports into Tubridy’s salary, the loss-making Toy Show The Musical and non-compliant redundancy programmes to inform their report and form ‘conclusions’ into the practices at RTÉ.
The Irish Daily Mail understands the report makes recommendations to RTÉ around the formulation of exit packages, and the need for ‘clear guidelines’ around how they are calculated and provided.
It is also understood the PAC report recommends that any future exit packages should not contain a non-disclosure or confidentiality clause.
One source with knowledge of the report said the reasoning behind this recommendation is transparency around public funds.
The source added that RTÉ from this point onwards should be upfront with executives that are leaving that their exit payment is subject to public scrutiny.
RTÉ spent over €2.6million in exit packages for executives between 2016 and 2022, and has been asked by the Media Minister to publish the figure for 2023.
One of the main recommendations from the report is to bring RTÉ under the remit of the Comptroller and Auditor General again after nearly three decades of being independently audited.
This proposal is already being considered by the Government, and the Taoiseach said yesterday that it would be a ‘good idea’.
‘We’ve actually haven’t made a policy decision on that, but you know, my view on it, I think it’d be a good idea to have that additional level of scrutiny.’
The former chair of RTÉ Siún Ní Raghallaigh said last year that the broadcaster should come back under the watch of the C&AG.
A source on the committee said of the move: ‘This has been a common view from the PAC members since the early stages of this.’