Former chief financial officer exit package worth €450,000, committee hears
RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst arrives at Leinster House, Dublin, ahead of appearing before the Oireachtas joint committee on tourism, culture, arts, sport and media (Brian Lawless/PA)
RTÉ’s former chief financial officer Breda O’Keeffe was paid an exit package worth €450,000, an Oireachtas committee has been told.
The exit package paid to Ms O’Keeffe was not brought before the executive board for approval, an independent report by McCann FitzGerald concluded.
The report, published last month, concluded it was the only case where the terms of the 2017 voluntary exit programme “were not complied with”, the responsibility for which rests with RTÉ as individuals were not responsible for putting their applications to the executive board for approval.
Director general of RTÉ Kevin Bakhurst, who has pledged reform at Ireland’s public service broadcaster since taking over last summer, said the organisation had faced legal issues in trying to publish the independent report.
Appearing before the Media Committee on Wednesday alongside RTÉ executives and board members, Mr Bakhurst said it was “concerning to me the way that Breda’s package was agreed”, and that he has “absolute sympathy for the staff who are outraged about it because I’m fairly outraged about it myself”.
Under questioning from Senator Malcolm Byrne, he also said he had received a letter from the solicitor of Ms O’Keeffe on Tuesday night “setting a range of things she would like me to say at committee”.
He said: “I even got a letter, as of yesterday evening, from the solicitors of the previous chief financial officer setting out a range of things she would like me to say in committee and the response was, ‘You were invited, you can come in and say them yourself if you want to’.”
He said the organisation had faced “significant” legal pressure in relation to the McCann Fitzgerald report.
“We have had significant legal pressure over months to get this report out, and to deal with this issue, and there is a legal threat over this,” Mr Bakhurst said under questioning from Fine Gael TD Alan Dillon.
After Mr Bakhurst initially said he could not answer the questions due to “confidentiality”, Mr Dillon argued that it should be answered in the interest of “transparency” and “accountability”.
Mr Bakhurst responded: “I agree with you, transparency is important, I agree with you that it’s important in this case. Breda O’Keeffe was paid €450,000 to leave.”
Human resources director Eimear Cusak was questioned about her decision to sign off on the exit package for Ms O’Keeffe, which did not comply with its redundancy scheme but was approved by former director general Dee Forbes.
She said of the voluntary exit schemes at RTÉ, that there were 177 people left from the first scheme carried out in 2017 and 26 from the second scheme in 2021, “all of whom went through due process”.
“And I would have not seen one being as high as that, no,” she said.
Asked if the role of chief financial officer was “suppressed”, she added: “I was told that the cost savings will be achieved. As I said earlier, looking back today, I should have pushed back harder.
"In that scheme, role suppression was not the only criteria, which is different from 2021, which was run differently.” Speaking to Ms Cusack at the committee, Sinn Féin TD Imelda Munster said: “If you were doing your job as director of HR, you could say I can’t sign that because it says ‘approved by the executive board’.
“If I sign that I will be party to a lie. At no stage did you intervene as head of HR, at no stage did you speak up and say what is being done here is wrong.
“Were you afraid of Dee Forbes? Were you afraid of questioning her. Were you afraid of tackling this?”
Ms Cusack said she “wasn’t afraid of Dee Forbes”, adding that she took full responsibility for the oversight in signing off the letter.
Ms Munster told Mr Bakhurst that it will be difficult to build up trust with the public when a board member who “never spoke up” is still on the executive board.
Mr Bakhurst said: “There have been consequences at the most senior level in RTÉ.
“There have been consequences at executive level. I judge each individual case on its merits.
“Eimear made a mistake, she said that in this case. The one thing I would say is I have worked with many heads of HR in my time, Eimear is extremely good at head of HR.
“She is delivering change and fairness across the organisation.”
Speaking at the start of the committee, chairwoman of the media committee Niamh Smyth said it was “regrettable” that a number of former board members could not attend the committee meeting.
She said: “It should also be noted that the following persons were also invited but regrettably have not been in a position to attend today.
“They are Dee Forbes, former director general of RTÉ, Geraldine O’Leary, former commercial director of RTÉ, Breda O’Keeffe, former chief financial officer at RTÉ, Jim Jennings, former director of content at RTÉ, Richard Collins, former chief financial officer at RTÉ, Conor Murphy, former board of RTÉ, Rory Coveney, former director of strategy at RTÉ, Moya Doherty, former chair of RTÉ, and Ian Hill, former deputy chair of the board of RTÉ.
“A number of the invited guests were unable to attend on the grounds of illness and ill health and we do wish them a speedy recovery.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
