‘APPALLING DISREGARD’

Ex-RTE boss signed off on golden handshake exit package for CFO not approved by board, shock new report reveals

The report also found that 10 exits did not satisfy the law

• Published: 19:54, 31 Jan 2024
• Updated: 19:54, 31 Jan 2024

EX-RTE boss Dee Forbes signed off on a golden handshake exit package for the Chief Financial Officer without running it by the Executive Board, a new report has found.

Law firm McCann Fitzgerald has carried out an independent review into issues surrounding redundancy processes in RTE in recent years.

The report found that former Director General Forbes agreed an exit package for former Chief Financial Officer Breda O’Keeffe without bringing it before the RTE board.

The report claims that Breda O’Keeffe claimed that replacing her with another CFO coupled with the restructuring of the finance unit would save RTE €200,000 a year.

The report does not detail how much Breda O’Keeffe was awarded in her redundancy package.

The former CFO co-operated with the legal firm through her own solicitor.

Dee Forbes did not co-operate with McCann Fitzgerald on the report due to “medical reasons” and would not provide comment to RTE yesterday.

New RTE Director General Kevin Bakhurst told a townhall meeting at the broadcaster that it was “pretty shocking” that such an exit package could be agreed between the CFO and DG without consulting other executives.

He said that the failure to bring the former CFO’s exit package to the Executive was a failure of RTE and not of Breda O’Keeffe.

Media Minister Catherine Martin said Bakhurst had assured her in a meeting today that the “control and oversight reforms” introduced over the past number of months will “ensure this will not happen again.”

She said: “I note the findings of the RTE commissioned report into its 2017 and 2021 voluntary exit programmes, which was carried out by McCann FitzGerald. 

“The report demonstrates an appalling disregard for the principles of equity, fairness and transparency in the treatment of staff, which prevailed at the time.”

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 RTE.

Martin added: “It will help inform their work, which is ongoing, and I await their recommendations.”

Exit package costs

The report also found that 10 staff exits through a redundancy package did not satisfy the law.

These 10 exit packages were worth €223,010.

RTE had applied for tax rebates on these redundancy packages which they should not have gotten because the redundancies did not qualify under the Redundancy Payments Acts.

RTE has written to Revenue on the back of the report to engage with them in case they need to pay any money back.