RTÉ crisis: Another week, another damaging report – and more unanswered questions

Last week it was RTÉ's ill-conceived Toy Show the Musical production, this week the arrangements behind a lucrative exit package paid to the broadcaster’s former chief financial officer.

There are striking similarities in the two reports investigating the separate issues, in how in both cases key figures within the broadcaster were in the dark about significant financial decisions being made in Montrose.

In the case of the musical, which would go on to lose north of €2 million, we learned that by the time RTÉ's board of directors heard about the project, the contracts had already been signed to stage the event in the Convention Centre.

The latest report details how RTÉ's senior management team, known as the executive board, did not approve an exit package paid to its former chief financial officer, Breda O’Keeffe, as it was required to do. Instead Dee Forbes, then director general, approved Ms O’Keeffe’s application to leave under a voluntary exit scheme, based on a business case drawn up by Ms O’Keeffe.

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Legal firm McCann FitzGerald, which took over the reins from Grant Thornton to examine this issue for RTÉ, found that business case was based on plans for an internal successor to step into the role, to save €200,000 a year. By the time it became clear those savings would not be made – external candidate Richard Collins was appointed to the position – Ms O’Keeffe had accepted her exit package.

The idea behind the voluntary exit scheme, announced in the spring of 2017, was to cut costs by restructuring the broadcaster, trimming the workforce by as many as 250 employees.

It was not until the tumultuous Oireachtas committee hearings last summer, where RTÉ was fighting for its life in the wake of the scandal over undisclosed payments to former presenter Ryan Tubridy, that the details of Ms O’Keeffe’s exit package came under serious scrutiny.

In a further headache for RTÉ, the report raised concerns about 10 cases where people had been given redundancy packages under the exit scheme that may not have been kosher with Revenue rules. The report said those cases, which included Ms O’Keeffe’s package, did not meet requirements to be classed as redundancies, which could have tax implications for the lump sums people were paid.

More notable, however, than what we found out in the McCann FitzGerald report is what we still don’t know, due to the lack of co-operation from one of the central figures, Ms Forbes.

The reviewers said Ms Forbes was unable to participate or respond to questions for medical reasons. This meant they were “inhibited” in understanding exactly why she had not brought the former chief financial officer’s exit package to RTÉ's executive board. Grant Thornton’s inquiry into the ill-fated Toy Show the Musical similarly said it had been hobbled by not being able to interview the former head of RTÉ.

In the days after the RTÉ scandal first erupted last June Ms Forbes resigned with immediate effect. The former director general then refused requests to appear before Oireachtas committee hearings on the controversy, citing medical reasons.

Other senior executives such as Adrian Lynch and Mr Collins, board members, and new director general Kevin Bakhurst, were left to face the series of bruising grillings from politicians, answering questions about decisions taken during Ms Forbes’s seven-year tenure.

Those grillings look set to resume now, with the Public Accounts Committee and the Committee on Media keen to pick up where they left off last year. However, there seems to be no indication Ms Forbes will break her silence and agree to appear before those committees to answer questions herself.

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