RTÉ appoints legal firm to investigate two voluntary exit schemes that ran in recent years

RTÉ has appointed well-known legal firm McCann FitzGerald to investigate two voluntary exit schemes that it ran in recent years.

The exit schemes became the focus of public attention during Oireachtas committee hearings held last month into undisclosed payments to star presenter Ryan Tubridy when it emerged the former chief financial officer (CFO) of RTÉ had availed of a scheme in 2020.

The firm has already started work on the review and the hope internally in the broadcaster is that a report will be completed in September.

It is expected the review will focus on what terms the voluntary exit schemes were offered on, whether the deals that were agreed adhered to that and whether the process was correctly carried out, and whether decisions were properly taken on deals that were refused.

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In an update to staff earlier this week, RTÉ director general Kevin Bakhurst said the broadcaster was “actively engaging with outside firms who would have the capability to do this work, and details of the review will be announced as soon as possible”.

[ Discussions on RTÉ's future funding to begin in September ahead of Budget 2024 ]

During an appearance before the Oireachtas media committee in July, the former CFO Breda O’Keeffe, who left her post in early 2020, said she had availed of a voluntary exit package then in place.

This was subsequently raised by RTÉ trade unions at a meeting with Mr Bakhurst, with a call from the National Union of Journalists for clarification about the terms of the exit deal.

During a subsequent meeting of the Public Accounts Committee (PAC), RTÉ witnesses said the exit agreement with Ms O’Keeffe had not come before the station’s executive committee, as was required by the process.

Mr Bakhurst said he had been surprised when it emerged that O’Keeffe had availed of the voluntary package, and the matter was being investigated. He said the exit deal had been agreed between Ms O’Keeffe and then director general, Dee Forbes.

At one stage during the PAC hearing, RTÉ executive Adrian Lynch tried to read out a text message from Ms O’Keeffe disputing the claim that no one at the executive knew but TDs intervened, taking exception to the effort to read the text into the committee’s proceedings. Ms O’Keeffe had declined an invitation to come before the PAC.

In the update to staff, Mr Bakhurst said that the review in the voluntary exit package 2017 and 2021 had commenced.

“McCann FitzGerald (Solicitors) have been engaged to complete the report, and I have asked that it is completed by the end of September. I am committing that, minus any exclusions necessary under data protection legislation, the conclusions of the report will be made available to you, to the Trade Union Group, the Managers’ Association, public representatives, and the media,” he added.