RTÉ considering €400k redundancy payment – O’Rourke

The Chairman of RTÉ has confirmed that the broadcaster is considering making a redundancy payment of around €400,000 to an individual.

Terence O’Rourke declined to say if the payment would be made to an individual who had refused to appear before an Oireachtas committee.

Asked by Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin if the RTÉ board, during Mr O’Rourke’s tenure, had approved an exit package of €400,000, Mr O’Rourke replied: “It could be at that level, yes.”

“We haven’t signed off on anything yes because it hasn’t been concluded yet,” he added. “It’s in the process.”

The process began “a number of months” ago, Mr O’Rourke said, during an appearance before the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media.

He also confirmed that Minister for Media Catherine Martin is aware of the potential payment.

“Can I ask if it is in respect of anyone who has declined to come before this commitee?” Deputy Griffin asked.

“I can’t go into any more detail,” Mr O’Rourke replied, citing legal concerns, and adding that he cannot “go into any personal details”.

The minister “has been aware of the process for a while,” he added. “I spoke to her as recently as two weeks ago about this.”

“That won’t sit well with the public, I’m sure, that we may still be in that territory,” Deputy Griffin said, adding: “Where is it going to stop?”

“I understand that,” Mr O’Rourke replied. He also noted that all exit packages are published in RTÉ’s annual report.

Mr O’Rourke said that “there is very good clarity” in his communications with Minister Martin, with whom he has met four times in the past three months.

He also meets RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst “several times a week”, and noted that the Remuneration Committee has met five times since he took over, and the Audit Committee met twice in last two months.

Asked if any more revelations from the national broadcaster are to be expected, Mr O’Rourke said: “In terms of bad behaviour or lapses in policy, there’s absolutely nothing new.”

He revealed that RTÉ will publish a register of external activities “in the coming months” and said that he has not faced resistance in his work to reform the organisation.

‘The culture is changing’

The RTÉ Board is “getting too much information now” from the executive, he said, but he emphasised that it needs that volume of “very thorough” information.

“I feel they’re getting full and appropriate answers to all the questions they are asking,” he said of his fellow board members.

He said the culture “is changing” but added that there are “deeply embedded cultural issues” which need to be tackled.

He told the committee that there is now a culture of “openness and transparency, and making sure that nothing is hidden” that was not present in the past.

“We’re on the right road.”

Head of Human Resources at RTÉ Eimear Cusack said that discussions with the Department of Social Protection over bogus self-employment contracts has “intensified” with weekly meetings taking place.

Asked about funding for RTÉ, Mr O’Rourke said that “the current system is not working”.

Ireland is “one of the only countries left in Europe which has the license fee based on possession of a TV set”.

He welcomed “the repeated assurance of [Minister for Media Catherine Martin] and our Government colleagues that they expect to have a new financing framework for RTÉ in the next few weeks – before the summer recess”.

But he said that the board does not have a view on which model should be used.

He acknowledged “the great work of the staff in providing output of the highest quality”, and said that “the professionalism and commitment of the staff is at all times evident, despite the serious blow to morale”.