RTÉ senior manager rejected exit deal, Kevin Bakhurst tells media committee 

Mr Bakhurst said the exit package had ended up at the WRC because a deal was unable to be reached on the person’s package, with the figure of €400,000 being suggested to the committee.

The RTÉ director general was asked by Fine Gael senator Micheál Carrigy if an exit package had been offered to head of content Jim Jennings, who was again unable to attend the committee and had been on sick leave “for most of the year”.

However, Mr Bakhurst said he could not confirm who the person was.

In his opening statement, Mr Bakhurst said it had been a “challenging year” for RTÉ.

He told Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin that “to the best of his knowledge”, the person responsible for a €75,000 mis-statement of the losses connected to Toy Show The Musical was no longer working in RTÉ.

He said that, overall, five people no longer work with the broadcaster due to the scandals of the last year. However, he said that nobody had been dismissed due to the “extremely high bar” set out in Irish employee law. He said neither former director general Dee Forbes nor Ryan Tubridy had taken cases against RTÉ.

Mr Bakhurst said a register of staff interests was being compiled and was near publication, but “some issues” were being worked out with the Data Protection Commissioner.

He told Mr Carrigy that the €20m bailout given to the broadcaster last week was used to plug the gap in TV licence funding drop-offs, which he said was down 14% this year. This figure fluctuates week on week, and Mr Bakhurst joked that it “depends on how many committee hearings we’re doing”.

He said RTÉ would have a preference for multi-annual funding.

Mr Bakhurst was asked by Fianna Fáil senator Malcolm Byrne about plans announced last week to move production of Fair City and The Late Late Show off-site.

He said there was “no choice” to do so because the broadcaster was not willing to pay “€300m to upgrade buildings”.

The final shape of where and how the shows will be produced has not been decided he told the committee, but said that Fair City in particular was “crucial” to the success of RTÉ.

He said that the soap accounts for 5% of viewership on the RTÉ Player.

The Late Late Show was “a bit different”, but it was likely that the show will end up in a bigger studio than its current “quite old” home in Montrose.

No price has yet been put on the broadcaster’s new home in Cork, Mr Bakhurst said.