AN EXTERNAL REVIEW of RTÉ’s voluntary exit scheme has been ordered after an Oireachtas committee heard that a package received by one senior executive was not subject to the required sign-off.
RTÉ director-general Kevin Bakhurst commissioned the probe that will cover the years 2017-2021.
The examination will feed into the Government’s review of contractor fees and human resources at the broadcaster.
RTÉ announced the move after the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was told the voluntary redundancy package for former RTÉ chief financial officer (CFO) Breda O’Keeffe was not signed off by every member of the broadcaster’s executive.
O’Keeffe left the organisation in 2020.
Current CFO Richard Collins said he was on the executive board when the payment to his predecessor was made but not when it was agreed.
Collins told the PAC: “I knew nothing about that package, Breda never explained anything about it, the director-general (Dee Forbes) never did.”
Interim deputy director-general Adrian Lynch was also on the executive board at the time but said he only became aware she exited through the voluntary redundancy scheme last week.
Labour TD Alan Kelly said all members of the executive team were supposed to sign off such packages.
Lynch said this was “absolutely factually correct”.
Asked by Kelly how he could not have signed off the package, Lynch said: “It never came to us for sign-off.”
Bakhurst, who also gave evidence to the committee, said the matter was being examined.
“This is an issue that I take very seriously because this is exactly about bringing significant decisions to the executive,” he told committee members.
Prior to Thursday evening’s announcement, Kelly had urged RTÉ to investigate if there were other instances of the voluntary redundancy scheme in which the post being vacated was not suppressed or discontinued – which he said was the case for O’Keeffe’s role.
Later in the committee, which sat for four-and-a-half hours, Lynch interjected during a gap in questioning seeking to make a “point of clarification”.
Lynch said: “I received a text from the former CFO, just to say she would dispute the idea that nobody in the exec board knew…”
There was consternation in the chamber as Lynch was interrupted to be told the committee could not accept second-hand evidence.
Independent TD Verona Murphy was among those to express outrage at this, and said: “How serious is Mr Lynch taking this that he thought it was appropriate?”
"How serious is Mr Lynch taking this that he thought it was appropriate?"
— TheJournal.ie (@thejournal_ie) July 13, 2023
Verona Murphy slams former RTÉ Chief Financial Officer Breda O'Keeffe for communicating by text with deputy Director General Adrian Lynch during proceedings after refusing to come before the PAC today. pic.twitter.com/tOsMIP2dCl
O’Keeffe had told the Public Accounts Committee she would not attend yesterday as she had nothing further to add to her contributions to the media committee last week.
Following admonishment from several members of the committee, Lynch sought to defend his contribution regarding the text message.
“I received a text, whatever it was, 20 minutes ago,” he said.
“I thought it was very important having made a statement in front of the house that that should be correct with that information.
“I thought it was material.”
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