Dee Forbes banging the RTE TV licence drum again 60m uncollected fee *poll not working - pl ignore*

Kevin has issued another statement to

"clarify" things

Coveney prob got 1 years salary

Collins payoff is secret

This should be revealed as it is essentially public money they are giving away.

RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst has

issued a statement on the departures

of some senior executives at the

broadcaster.

Mr Bakhurst said former Director of

Commercial Geraldine O'Leary and

ex-Director of Legal Affairs Paula Mullooly

did not receive exit payments.

Former Director of Strategy Rory Coveney

did receive an exit payment.

Mr Bakhurst said RTÉ's former Chief

Financial Officer Richard Collins departed

RTÉ "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."

He said: "As I have stated already, RTÉ has

previously received legal advice that it is

restricted from providing details regarding

the departures of individuals from RTÉ

"This advice was shared with both the

Public Accounts Commitee and the Joint

Oireachtas Committee.

"However, in the interests of transparency

I can clarify matters with regard to the

exits of the four executives who departed

RTÉ after I started as Director General, and

I am doing so with their agreement

"Geraldine 0'Leary retired from RTÉ, and

her role as Director of Commercial, and did

not receive an exit payment.

"Paula Mullooly decided to leave RTÉ, and

her role as Director of Legal Affairs, to

pursue another opportunity and did not

receive an exit payment.

Mr Bakhurst said RTÉ's former Chief

Financial Officer Richard Collins departed

RTÉ "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."

He said: "As I have stated already, RTÉ has

previously received legal advice that it is

restricted from providing details regarding

the departures of individuals from RTÉ

"This advice was shared with both the

Public Accounts Commitee and the Joint

Oireachtas Committee.

"However, in the interests of transparency

I can clarify matters with regard to the

exits of the four executives who departed

RTÉ after I started as Director General, and

I am doing so with their agreement

"Geraldine 0'Leary retired from RTÉ, and

her role as Director of Commercial, and did

not receive an exit payment.

"Paula Mullooly decided to leave RTÉ, and

her role as Director of Legal Affairs, to

pursue another opportunity and did not

receive an exit payment.

"Rory Coveney and I agreed that it was

best that he stand down from his role as

Director of Strategy

"This enabled the beginning of the

restructuring of the leadership team and

the suppression of his role.

"Responsibility for strategy has passed

to Adrian Lynch, with no additional

compensation, in addition to his

substantive role as Director of Audience,

Channels and Marketing

"Rory's role became redundant, an exit

payment was offered by RTÉ and accepted

by Rory, and with no backfill being made

RTÉ will recoup that payment by July of

this year.

"Following independent mediation

Richard Collins, RTÉ's former Chief

Financial Officer, departed RTÉ 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.

"As I have said before, in relation to all the

exits, I have sought an update to the legal

advice previously received."

Earlier this week, Mr Bakhurst confirmed

that Ms O'Keeffe was paid €450,000 when

she left the organisation.

Mr Bakhurst told Joint Oireachtas

Committee that he and "many people"

within the broadcaster had no knowledge

that Ms O'Keeffe had taken a voluntary

exit package "until she said it in one of the

committees".

This won't be popular but I do feel a bit for Richard Collins, I think he was treated as a patsy by O'Keefe who was leaving with her pockets stuffed with cash and by other senior execs like Forbes and conveney. I bet he got told barely a third of what was going on and I bet when this all went down it was like "Angola" as Brian Cowan said about health.

Don't get me wrong like alot of other senior execs Collins as happy to go along not asking the questions and challenging the management especially for someone in the CFO position and then nailed his coffin shut when claiming he didn't k ow what he was being paid.

Yep she seems to think that she can get others to do her bidding without her having to turn up and face the music. Have to say she seems a complete and utter cow.

I've just checked my shed - she's not hiding in there

This was raised around the time the project was announced. The musical was running in direct competion with the Gaietys own "Gaiety panto". Overlap in dates etc. Can't have two shows running at the same time in one venue. It would be the same I imagine for a lot of the other larger venues. I belive the convention centre was the only venue available.

Surely Bakhurst has a problem here. Who gave him the authority to use public money and agree to Collin's exit agreement in terms of "RTÉ 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."

Why does he think that he can sign 'binding confidentiality clauses' for a public body? And not be answerable to say the PAC?

Isn't this why he was coy the other day, defending Cusack and refusing to give details of exit packages. He suspects that he's overstepped.

Is he for the chop?

And yet go to the government every single year with cap in hand saying you're broke and need more money.

Laughable if it wasn't so serious.

Was it rounded down from 250 and that's a serious question

It looks like RTE had developed a culture of working a few years and then when you decide to leave for another job, you'll get a hefty reward.

And they are broke.

Kevin Bachurst has proved utterly disappointing by keeping Adrian Lynch and Eimear Cusack. And keeping the handshake payments culture going.

His position is becoming more and more untenable.

The Toy Show changed from a show about toys to a showcase for Tubridy's prancing about. The toys became accessories to that. Even TSTM was a continuation of Tubridy's obsession with misery. Now, they're all miserable in RTE. Le Misérable himself has got a gig on Virgin Radio.

Regards...jmcc

It was a classic case of believing your own hype. The Toy Show is clearly a huge annual event within RTE and is hyped no end by them. They clearly thought that because the TS was important to them, it must be important to everyone. Turns out it wasn't.

What's worse though is how the whole show was procured. Before even having a script they had the venue booked and locked in. Such an unproven and risky venture should have had a major element of risk sharing with the venue even if there was a substantial cost. That would have made it much easier to pull the plug when the opening days of ticket sales were so disappointing. These days it can be predicted with a good accuracy how successful a show will be based on the initial demand for tickets.

In fact the right way would have been a short run in a small theatre to prove the concept. There is often a fear of risk taking and consequently innovation is stifled in the public sector so I don't want to criticise them for trying something different. The big mistake was to go all out on a massive unproven production. Risk should always be measured. I suppose it circles back to the start of this post - they thought anything that they slapped Toy Show branding on would be loved and blinded them to the massive risk they were taking.

Indeed, my memories were of "get those fukin Billy Barry's off and back to the toys. And Dustin."

Rory's role became redundant, an exit payment was offered by RTÉ and accepted by Rory, and with no backfill being made RTÉ will recoup that payment by July of this year," 

I'm not sure they understand the word recoup?? But nothing new there.

(He got a years salary by the way)

Presumably Collins, who didn't know his own salary, got a year's pay in his exit payment as well.

Played the part convincingly I'll give him that but while we all felt bad for him at the PAC he's out the door side left with a couple of hundred thousand euros in his arse pocket for a good days work and the eye off him with an NDA issued by a sky fairy