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

“THE Department of Health's top civil servant is retiring on a package of €540,000 after securing a boost to his pension.

But secretary general Michael Scanlan is not availing of the early retirement scheme for the public service, which ends this month.

He is the latest in a raft of top civil servants to retire in recent months, including fellow secretary general Dermot McCarthy, who sparked controversy with his gold-plated €730,000 retirement package.”

Civil servants get packages too.

Why aren't the media probing the Chris Greene thing?

The Government thought Catherine dodged a bullet last week but Siún has fired an Exocet that will sink her.

Her detailed statement challenges the Minister's account on a series of points and destroys Catherine's line of defence. It is worth reading in full.

Last week, the Minister said she was unable to express confidence in the Chair of RTÉ because Siún repeatedly misled her about the exit packages and then refused to meet with her. Siún statement gives specific details to refute both those claims. Especially damaging is the fact that, contrary to the Minister's claims last week, she did not meet regularly with the Chair over the past year and preferred to deal with RTÉ via her civil servants.

The Minister's intervention in late February, after being "hands-off" throughout the crisis in RTÉ, was disastrous. The Taoiseach and other Cabinet Ministers eventually had to rally around her because the coalition deal means that only Eamon Ryan can get rid of Green Party Ministers but the Green Party structures make it impossible for him to get rid of his Deputy Leader. She seemed to survive unscathed the lengthy Oireachtas Committee discussion and the Dáil debate. But now Siún says the Minister has lied to everyone.

If she can't rebut Siún claims, that would be the effective end of her career. Would this Government continue with a zombie Minister in such a sensitive portfolio?

They are exit packages……

“Mr McCarthy, who was secretary general to the government for eleven years and also secretary general to three Taoisigh, retired in July.

In addition to his annual pension of €142,670, he also received a lump sum of €428,011 and a special severance package of €142,670 bringing his overall payment to €713,351.

Mr McCarthy was Bertie Ahern’s chief advisor during the Northern peace process negotiations and was in a pivotal government position, even attending Cabinet meetings, during the economic meltdown and the bailout from the EU/IMF.

All civil servants are entitled a lump sum of 1.5 times their final salary on retirement. Only the highest earners pay tax on this amount.”

So based on the above 713k, he got a special severance package of 142k

The scheme refers to 1.5 times final salary, but they didn’t apply that. He was on 208k when he left but they applied his pre crash salary of 285k so that he would get more. That benefitted him to the tune of over 110k.

So 250k of that package was a nice little sweetener.

Please remember that Mr Mc Carthy left when we were under the control of the troika, a time in which we were told about extra taxes, new taxes and here is the state trying to made the termination pay as big as they can.

My point all along since I started contributing to this thread, was that RTE behaviour was more of a learned behaviour rather than them doing something way out of kilter with the rest of the PS/Civil Service. Maybe the RTE severance payments are also made on the some contractual arrangement as with civil service terms, but we will never know as the Politicans are too busy grandstanding to ask pertinent follow up questions.

I have no interest in RTE continuing in anything like its current form, and I see this whole 8 months culminating in the PAC report today …..as yet another wasted opportunity in this state.

We are great at tribunals of inquiry, great at reports, and awful at implementing reform.

Looking at it cynically, they prevent legal problems in that the cost of defending a legal action against getting rid of someone is evaluated and they are paid to go away quietly.

Regards...jmcc

Jaysus……One of those Hardimans!!!

Theres always one.

Who's the female that looks like Woody Allen with a wig.. is it the CFO ?

If the Department did not regard the matter as closed, they have a bizarre way of conducting their business.

She informed the Department about the exit packages back in October. No questions or issues were raised at that time or subsequently until, out of the blue and without prior notice at the end of meetings in mid-February, the Minister asked her about the Collins package. Siún responded off the top of her head and, when she realised that she had given the wrong information, she phoned the Secretary General the following day to clarify. She admits she was wrong but it was a simple memory lapse, she had no reason to mislead the Minister and she clarified the matter quickly.

In no way should this be a hanging offence for the Chair of a State Board.

The organisation putting confidentiality clauses in exit agreements in a public sector organidation is a 'hanging offence' for the chair in my opinion. Especially given RTEs recent history.

No strange decisions there. they just protected themselves to the hilt and made sure everyone was sorted. Personifies this country.

Still no comment from Breda O'Keefe and no sign she's going to pay any of her ludicrous exit payment back.

So two fingers to the nation really. What a woman she is.

Shifting the goalposts.

These confidentiality clauses are fairly standard business practice and we see the HSE used them even more generously. No one in Government objected until the media took notice.

Get someone with a good strong nutbag who is not part of the Monkstown set.

Googled him, interesting story.