Dail committee member on reason for review
€400k exit package criticised
A LEADING member of the Public Accounts Committee has questioned if RTE commissioned a report because the new Director General could not trust his leadership team.
The Labour TD suggested that Kevin Bakhurst commissioned a report into voluntary redundancies at the broadcaster because he “couldn’t fully believe the answers he’d received directly from the management team”.
It comes as Media Minister Catherine Martin said the latest report into voluntary redundancies at the national broadcaster indicated there were “rigid rules” for some and “one rule for the others”.
She also spoke of an “appalling culture” and “dysfunctionality”.
A report conducted by Mccann Fitzgerald and published by RTE on Wednesday showed the exit
TV producer and host Maia Dunphy has hit out at RTE’S former Chief Financial Officer Breda O’keeffe’s whopping €400k exit package.
Ms O’keeffe left the broadcaster in 2020. Richard Collins took over the role as Chief Financial Officer.
It emerged on Wednesday the voluntary redundancy package for Ms O’keeffe was not signed off by every member of the broadcaster’s executive.
Reacting to the revelations, Ms Dunphy – who has written and produced Podge & Rodge and Katherine Lynch’s Wagon’s Den and has worked with Dustin the Turkey and Zig and Zag – said: “A €400k exit package. Sigh.
“I remember fighting for €1k to cover mileage/ trains over an eightweek shoot, only to be told I’d have to find it
O’keeffe
Breda package for former Chief Financial Officer Breda O’keeffe had not been approved by the RTE Executive.
Former Director General Dee Forbes signed off on the deal, despite rules stating that applications under the 2017 voluntary exit programme had to be signed off by the Executive.
All other 250 applications submitted under the 2017 scheme were considered by the Executive.
Labour’s Alan Kelly has now suggested Mr Bakhurst put an investigation in place because he could not believe members of his Alan Kelly management team.
He said: “When RTE came before the Public Accounts Committee, we repeatedly asked about and interrogated these redundancies.
“It seems that the information was within the management team
RTE’S
Kevin Bakhurst elsewhere. So I had to shave a bit off other lines in the already tiny budget so freelancers weren’t out of pocket.”
The report by legal firm Mccann Fitzgerald found Ms O’keeffe’s exit package was not considered and approved by the RTE Executive Board as was required under the rules of the 2017 Voluntary Exit Programme.
The review found Ms O’keeffe made a business case for her departure that was discussed between her and former Director General Dee Forbes.
A spokesperson for Ms Forbes said she “isn’t in a position to comment” on the findings of the review. This business case was based on an existing employee being appointed to the role of Chief Financial Officer, leading to a cost saving to
RTE of around €200,000 a year. already, so why weren’t we just told what they knew there and then?
“Or is it the case that after everything that has happened, Mr Bakhurst couldn’t fully believe the answers he’d received directly from the management team that he’d have to put on the record, so he took the safer option by commissioning this report despite the information already being available?”
In a statement last night, Mr Bakhurst stated Mr Kelly had called for the issues on voluntary redundancy to be probed.
He said: “After the issues emerged in committee, it was clear both to me and to other members of RTE’S Interim Leadership Team that in order to address the wider questions from the committee, staff and the unions an independent report was the only way to try to get the full picture”
He added the review’s publication was delayed “due to a number of legal
issues”.
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