Hiding behind legal advice will not cut it for RTÉ any more

On Sunday, July 9th 2023, Rory Coveney announced his resignation as director of strategy of RTÉ in a statement. “I met with Kevin [Bakhurst] over the past few days and told him I believed the tough job ahead of him would be made somewhat easier if he had a fresh lead team,” the statement read. “I’ve tendered my resignation immediately to give him the space to do that. Having worked with Kevin before, I’ve absolute faith in him. He’s the right person to rebuild the national broadcaster. I wish him the very best.”

In Bakhurst’s statement at the time, he said: “I want to express my sincere thanks to Rory for his significant contribution to public service media during his time in RTÉ. As strategic adviser to the director general, and latterly as director of strategy, Rory steered the organisation through a period of unprecedented change in media, while overseeing RTÉ's complex strategy and public affairs units. His diligence, energy, and insight were hugely appreciated by many across the organisation. I wish him the very best for the future.” These were generous words amid RTÉ's multifaceted scandal, a scandal which included Coveney’s role in overseeing the Toy Show The Musical disaster.

The following day, July 10th, Bakhurst officially began his role as director general and one of his first announcements was standing down the organisation’s senior leadership team, although some of them became part of a new interim leadership team. When their roles were announced, Adrian Lynch’s role was given as director of audiences, channels, marketing, and acting deputy director general. There was no mention that he was also now director of strategy. Perhaps we were supposed to understand this as implicit. What was implicit was Bakhurst’s acceptance of Coveney’s resignation in his own statement on July 9th.

We now know that, despite resigning, Coveney received an exit payment. The Sunday Times reported yesterday that Bakhurst and the chairwoman of RTÉ's board, Siún Ní Raghallaigh, signed off on Coveney’s exit payment of up to €200,000

Conor Mullen’s role was announced as head of strategy and commercial compliance, although given the area of the organisation Mullen works in is RTÉ Media Sales — a department mentioned next to his name in the new leadership announcements — I assumed it was the strategy of that department he would oversee, not the broader strategy of the entire organisation.

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We now know that, despite resigning, Coveney received an exit payment. The Sunday Times reported yesterday that Bakhurst and the chairwoman of RTÉ's board, Siún Ní Raghallaigh, signed off on Coveney’s exit payment of up to €200,000. In a statement on Saturday, Bakhurst explained Coveney’s exit payment as a consequence of the director of strategy role being eradicated. “Rory Coveney and I agreed that it was best that he stand down from his role as director of strategy,” said Bakhurst. Coveney and Bakhurst coming to an agreement that the former would stand down is different language to Coveney saying he had resigned. Why is this?

Bakhurst’s statement went on: “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.”

There appears to be a contradiction here: Bakhurst is saying Coveney received an exit payment around his role becoming redundant, while Coveney himself said he had resigned.

Coveney, who did not respond to attempts by The Irish Times on Saturday to contact him, has not commented publicly on the terms of his exit package.

Did any senior person in RTÉ question whether — amid scandals about payments, waste, and runaway budgets — an exit payment for a senior executive who oversaw Toy Show The Musical was appropriate?

There are now multiple questions arising from this confusion that Bakhurst, Coveney, and Ní Raghallaigh must answer. Why are we only hearing now that Coveney received an exit package? How and why did someone who resigned qualify for an exit package? What is the timeline of this exit package being offered and accepted? At what point was it decided the director of strategy role itself was to be made redundant? Why was “strategy” not included in the descriptions of Lynch’s new role? When this payment was offered, did any senior person in RTÉ — including Bakhurst and Ní Raghallaigh — question whether such a payment was in line with RTÉ's processes regarding an employee resigning? Did any senior person in RTÉ question whether — amid scandals about payments, waste, and runaway budgets — an exit payment for a senior executive who oversaw Toy Show The Musical was appropriate? Was RTÉ legally or contractually obligated to offer that exit payment, and what were those obligations, if they existed? Have any other RTÉ employees who resigned in recent times received exit payments we’ve yet to hear about?

We have yet to move on from issues that happened on former director general Dee Forbes’s watch. Hiding behind legal advice will not cut it any more. We are being told that Bakhurst’s era will be one of transparency and accountability. Time and time again, RTÉ executives have returned to Oireachtas committees. Time and time again, these appearances — alongside the various reports and statements from executives — have raised more questions.

Clarity is still lacking, the dripfeed of information is ongoing, and new issues are still emerging.

The big question now is whether RTÉ executives can lead and implement the change needed to regain the trust of ordinary workers, politicians and most of the public.