RTÉ leaders expected to meet Catherine Martin amid exit packages row
Rebecca Black, PA
RTÉ's most senior staff are expected to meet Minister for the Media Catherine Martin amid heightened public speculation over exit packages for senior executives.
Ms Martin is to meet director general Kevin Bakhurst and the chair of the RTÉ board, Siún Ní Raghallaigh, at her department on Monday morning.
Mr Bakhurst commented on Saturday on the exit arrangements for four former executives: director of commercial Geraldine O’Leary, director of legal affairs Paula Mullooly, director of strategy Rory Coveney and chief financial officer Richard Collins.
Saying he had been restricted by legal advice, Mr Bakhurst said Ms O’Leary retired from RTÉ and did not receive an exit payment while Ms Mullooly left to pursue another opportunity and also received no exit payment.
He added that Mr Coveney had agreed he should stand down, his role became redundant, and an exit payment was offered by RTÉ and accepted, while Mr Collins left by mutual agreement with a “binding confidentiality clause that was agreed to by both sides and in the interest of fairness and respect cannot be breached”.
On Sunday, Minister for Enterprise Simon Coveney said he did not know what package his brother Rory had received.
Questioned at a Fine Gael selection convention for the Dublin constituency for the European elections, Mr Coveney refused to comment.
He went on to indicate he did not know what his brother received.
Mr Coveney said he is not participating in discussions at Cabinet about RTÉ or making public comment on it.
Tánaiste Micheal Martin earlier called for transparency from RTÉ.
“As a general principle, where any organisation has been funded by the public – via the licence fee in this case – and taxpayers’ money, there should be full transparency in terms of salaries and packages more generally,” he told RTÉ Radio’s This Week programme.
“RTE needs to build up trust with the people in respect of how it is governed, its governance and its administration, and I think the new director-general is doing everything he possibly can to do that.
“But as a general principle, I do believe that salaries and so forth, and indeed packages, should be fully transparent.
“The indications are that he has certainly been constrained in these specific cases.”
Mr Martin said the decision around funding of public services media is to be taken before this summer.
He also said it is “sensible” that the Government awaits two reports commissioned by Ms Martin on the governance of RTÉ.
However, he said the TV licence is likely to remain a significant source of revenue for the national broadcaster in 2024 and 2025.
“The three party leaders are agreed with the Minister that we do need to resolve this in terms of the model, but then it will take time, so the licence fee will be a significant revenue earner for RTÉ, certainly in 2024, and I will even hazard a guess into 2025 until a new system has bedded down,” he said.
“We would hope to get a decision made this year, hopefully before the summer recess, but then it’ll take time, I would envisage, to work that system through and to have it fully up and running.
“There are different perspectives on this, that’s natural. I take a particularly fundamentalist view on the editorial independence piece and the separation of media from being too dependent on any given government support at any given time.
“I just think we need to put in guard rails… because the new funding arrangements are not just about RTÉ, but other stations, local and national and print media too.”
Speaking after attending the Munich Security Council, Mr Martin added: “All we’re hearing here, networking with other countries, meeting tech companies, it’s all about election manipulation, it’s all about social media and the degree to which misinformation and disinformation can really prevail.
“This is very key to the survival of our democracy. So we’ve got to get it right, and we’ve got to get the fundamentals right, in terms of how we structure it, and a new funding arrangement.”
