Ethna Tinney, the EBS director who faces being ousted next Monday, improved her performance in peer reviews being used to justify her removal, documents seen by The Irish Timesshow. Colm Keenareports.
The society's board has said it is not supporting her re-election at next Monday's annual general meeting because it has lost confidence in her "in the light of appraisals of her performance as a director, and the board's assessment of her subsequent performance". Ms Tinney claims this is because she has challenged issues such as executive pay.
Ms Tinney, along with the other directors of the EBS, was subjected to peer appraisals in late 2003 and late 2004.
The documents seen by The Irish Timesshow that Ms Tinney scored a total of 2.97, against a board average of 3.96, in her first appraisal.
Ms Tinney was only nominated for re-election in early 2004 after agreeing with the then chairman, Brian Joyce, to resign if her performance did not move "much closer to the overall average" in the review at the end of 2004.
In her second appraisal, she scored 3.49, against a board average of 3.96. She was subsequently re-elected in 2005 with the support of the board.
Ms Tinney said the results of her second appraisal were never discussed with her by Mr Joyce.
Mark Moran, the current chairman, said Mr Joyce had confirmed to him that he did raise the issue with Ms Tinney. "Was she asked to resign? I don't believe so. I feel it would have been a matter for her," he said.
Last week, Mr Moran said Ms Tinney had scored "significantly below average" in her second appraisal but "no action was forthcoming" from her at that time.
He said the board was not seeking to oust Ms Tinney for her views but rather because the board had lost confidence in her.
"Unfortunately, in the light of appraisals of her performance as a director, and the board's assessment of her subsequent performance, Ethna has lost the confidence of the board."
An appraisal of the board members has not occurred since 2004, but a new appraisal is scheduled for later this year. The appraisal involves each director rating each of his or her colleagues between zero and five under a number of headings, such as "works well with others" and "long-range planning contribution".
Mr Moran said Ms Tinney had only scored well in the attendance and availability categories, and had scored significantly under the average in the other nine categories.
The second appraisal shows Ms Tinney, a producer with Lyric FM who was asked to join the board in 2000, was given an average rating for attendance and availability.
She scored 3.8 compared to an average of 3.96 on "board participation (speaks out)" and 3.9 compared to an average of 4.15 on "meeting preparation". She scored 2.9 against an average of 3.95 in the category of "business knowledge". (The previous year she had scored 2.15 against an average of 3.97.)
Mr Moran was appointed chairman at the beginning of this year.
He said he set out to strengthen and refresh the board.
Ms Tinney has told members she believes she is not being supported because of the views she took on a number of matters.
Mr Moran has said that if Ms Tinney is elected then the board "will find a way of respecting the wishes of the members".
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