RTÉ board queried committee’s role in exit pay sign-offs

THE RTÉ board questioned the power held by a sub-committee that was signing off on exit packages, the Irish Daily Mail can reveal.

A new tranche of minutes of recent meetings of the RTÉ board reveal that the former chair said ‘more rigour’ could be brought to the relationship between the board and its subcommittees.

The Remuneration Committee (RemCo) of the RTÉ board signed off on a confidential exit payment to the former chief financial officer Richard Collins in October last year, in the wake of the emerging scandal at the station. RTÉ has come under pressure to reveal the details of this package, negotiated by the current director general Kevin Bakhurst. Both the Taoiseach and Media Minister have said these secret agreements should be the ‘exception and not the norm’.

The minutes reveal that members of the RTÉ board questioned the power and communication of the Remuneration Committee in a board meeting in January. Technology entrepreneur Jonathan Ruane, a board member, said there is a ‘discrepancy between what decisions are made at subcommittee level and what decisions are made at board and how they interact.’ The board’s former chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh was outlining at the meeting how the committee had validated the list of top ten highest earning presenters list, which was due for publication. The board discussed the issue of delegating this role to the committee. Anne O’Leary, who chairs the separate risk committee, ‘expressed concern over how these issues had been raised’.

Fellow board member Daire Hickey said ‘it was important for him, as a director, to stand over the figures on the ten highestearning presenters’. Another board member questioned whether it was procedure for all committees or just in relation to the top ten presenters’ pay list.

A general discussion ensued over how decisions are taken at committee level and board level. Ms Ní Raghallaigh said ‘more rigour could be brought to how committees interact with the board’

Ms Ní Raghallaigh has since resigned after she failed to inform the minister that the committee had signed off on Mr Collins’ exit. While it signed off on Mr Collins exit – with just three board members present – it was not discussed at a meeting of the entire board.

Minutes from a board meeting on October 26 show that Mr Bakhurst said he would take care ‘not to [be] hubristic’ when presenting his strategic plan for RTÉ in a meeting with the minister.

The then-chair of RTÉ said that the strategic framework would be provided to the Government, ‘then hopefully the €40m could be released’.