LAST UPDATE | 31 Jan
RTÉ’S EXIT PACKAGE for its former chief financial officer was “not considered and approved” by the broadcaster’s executive board, despite it being a requirement under the rules of its voluntary redundancy scheme.
In a new review of the scheme published today, it was found that the approval process for Breda O’Keeffe in the 2017 voluntary exit package (VEP) was “not complied with” by RTÉ.
The external review, carried out by McCann FitzGerald LLP, was commissioned into the broadcaster’s voluntary exit schemes for 2017 and 2021.
It details findings among the more than 250 applications made through the voluntary exit scheme in the two years concerned.
The report found that the O’Keeffe’s application was the “only one” which was not considered and approved by the RTÉ executive board.
Commenting on the findings, RTÉ’s director general Kevin Bakhurst said he was “shocked by this serious breach of procedure”, and that he aims to ensure similar will not occur again.
Bakhurst added that he is satisfied that additional protections that have been introduced over the last six months will “safeguard future processes”, including the broadening of oversight controls of RTÉ’s Remuneration Committee. He also cited stronger governance procedures among the company’s interim leadership.
RTÉ accepts the findings of the McCann Fitzgerald report, which I commissioned. The report finds that the rules of the two schemes were observed in all instances save one. I remain shocked by this serious breach of procedure – my aim continues to be the implementation of measures to ensure this cannot happen again.
In relation to Breda O’Keeffe, the report found “…that Ms O’Keeffe’s application was the only one not considered and approved by the Executive Board as was required under the rules of the 2017 VEP.”
It added that “responsibility” for the scheme did not lie with the ex-CFO, but RTÉ.
“The report concludes in this regard that the failure of RTÉ to follow the rules of its scheme rests with it,” it said.
O’Keeffe was, according to Noel Kelly and Ryan Tubridy, the one who proposed the “offset” to the exit payment for Ryan Tubridy’s 2015-2020 contract.
She left the organisation in March 2020 and was replaced by Richard Collins.
Last summer, O’Keeffe told PAC that she had availed of the scheme when she had left in 2020, even though the scheme is typically granted in circumstances where a role is suppressed or there has been a reorganisation within the company to reflect a role being made redundant.
The committee was told at the time that O’Keeffe’s voluntary redundancy package was not signed off by other members of the executive board.
In a further ten cases examined by the review, it was found that while they were approved under the 2017 scheme, the departures “did not in our view satisfy” the requirements of a redundancy under legislation because the roles were later filled.
The total amount of statutory redundancy sums paid to these ten individuals was €223,010.
“While the reasons for this varied and included roles that needed to be backfilled within a short period of time, the Revenue Commissioners may take the view that RTÉ should not have applied the tax exemption applicable to statutory redundancy payments to the payments received by some or all of these individuals,” the report said.
“This will however be a matter for the Revenue Commissioners to determine.”
This evening, former RTÉ Midlands correspondent Ciaran Mullooly blasted the findings, comparing it to his exit from the organisation when he sought to depart in 2021.
He called on Revenue to investigate the report’s conclusions.
Mullooly – who wrote about his reaction to the latest of the RTÉ controversy for The Journal earlier this week – added that he was “absolutely shocked with the revelation from today that Breda O’Keefe’s voluntary redundancy application was never brought” before the RTÉ executive.
He continued: “In my own case I had to wait for over 2 months for the executive to even consider my application to leave.”
I am absolutely shocked with the revelation from @rte today that Breda O’Keefe’s voluntary redundancy application was never brought before the RTÉ Executive. In my own case I had to wait for over 2 months for the executive to even consider my application to leave 1/2
— Ciaran Mullooly (@ciaranmullooly) January 31, 2024
The McCann FitzGerald report also noted the absence of an opportunity to meet with the former Director General Dee Forbes, who cited medical reasons as reason for her inability to participate.
The report said this “inhibited” its ability to understand “why [Breda O'Keeffe's] application was not put before the Executive Board for approval”.
Responding to the report, Culture Minister Catherine Martin said that it demonstrates an “appalling disregard for the principles of equity, fairness and transparency” in the treatment of staff, which she said prevailed at the time in RTÉ.
The Green Party TD added that she met with Bakhurst to discuss the findings of the latest report into the troubled broadcaster.
“…he assured me that the control and oversight reforms, introduced over the past number of months, will ensure that this will not happen again,” Martin said.
“The report has been forwarded to two independent Expert Advisory Committees which were commissioned by Government to carry out Reviews of Governance, Culture, and HR matters at RTÉ. It will help inform their work, which is ongoing, and I await their recommendations.”
The objective of the 2017 scheme was reducing the headcount at RTÉ and cost savings.
Over 250 applications were submitted under the 2017 scheme with 177 successful – an approximately 70% application success rate.
Cost savings of 80% or more were identified in the “vast majority” of successful applications, according to today’s report.
However, the 2021 scheme had a higher threshold for applications and saw a low number of successful applicants – 26 out of 177 applications. This success rate came in at less than 15%.
Labour media spokesperson Marie Sherlock said the revelations today are yet another example of an “upstairs downstairs culture” within the organisation.
“There was an appalling situation where the former CFO of RTÉ was representing RTÉ’s financial situation to trade unions and staff, while then breaching the terms of the VEP and benefiting from that VEP even though her position was not supressed and the position was not filled by an internal recruit as per her “business case,” she said.
“While we all hope there is a line drawn on the sand on this sorry time in RTÉ, the reality is that there are workers still sore that they were actually denied a VEP because their roles could not be suppressed, yet a different rule was applied to the CFO and others.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say