Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 14 February 2024

Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport And Media

Transparency of RTÉ Expenditure of Public Funds and Governance Issues: Discussion (Resumed)

Mr. Kevin Bakhurst:

It has happened and that is what I am trying to do. I am trying to address these issues. As I said, I was shocked by it. It was completely unacceptable and it should not have happened. This was the way the organisation was run. The right procedures were not in place and there was not the right relationship between the then executive team and the board. This would not happen now. When any single person leaves the organisation - we do occasionally have to pay people to leave - it has to go through, first, the director general and the head of HR and it then has to go through the board remuneration committee and, potentially, the board itself, if it thinks it is appropriate. There is a fully transparent, proper, robust process in place. This is a reflection of how the organisation was run and siloed, with small conversations happening offline and the proper information not being given to the full executive or the board. That is what we have been dealing with. Everything that we have put in place, which will be reviewed by the expert committees, and the myriad changes to governance are to ensure this cannot happen again. I had to come in and deal with this and all I can do is address the issues as I see them and make sure they cannot happen again.

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