RTÉ Director General Kevin Bakhurst has announced the commissioning of an external review of RTÉ's voluntary exit schemes in 2017 and 2021.
In a statement, he said: "Details of the review, which will feed into the Government's Review of Contractor Fees, Human Resources (HR) and other matters, will be announced as soon as possible."
RTÉ was before the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today, where voluntary exit packages were raised.
The broadcaster was asked to investigate the package that was granted to the organisation's former chief financial officer Breda O'Keeffe.
Last week, Ms O'Keeffe told politicians at the Oireachtas Committee on Media that she had availed of a package.
At today's PAC hearing, the broadcaster's Interim Deputy Director General Adrian Lynch said the first he heard of Ms O'Keeffe's package was when "she stated it last week" before the media committee.
Labour TD Alan Kelly said it should have been approved by all members of the executive board.
Mr Lynch responded: "Correct. That is absolutely factual. Never came to us for sign-off."
Current RTÉ Chief Financial Officer Richard Collins today said: "I knew nothing about that package. Breda never explained anything about it."
As Mr Kelly urged that this be investigated, RTÉ's Director General responded: "This is an issue that I take very seriously because this is exactly about bringing significant decisions to the executive."
Later, Mr Bakhurst, under questioning from Fine Gael's Colm Burke, said the package was agreed between his predecessor, Dee Forbes, and Ms O'Keeffe.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) welcomed the announcement of the voluntary exit scheme review.
NUJ Irish Secretary Séamus Dooley said in a statement: "We welcome this review and look forward to full publication of the findings. There has long been concerns at the lack of transparency and a lack of consistency in the handling of applications.
"All applications for such schemes must be treated fairly. it would appear that in some cases there were procedural gaps in the approval process and the review must examine whether there was a two-tier system in operation."
Ms O'Keeffe left RTÉ in March 2020 after 17 years with the organisation and was replaced by Mr Collins.
It is understood packages that involve a payment to the departing member of staff are normally granted in circumstances where their role is suppressed or there has been a reorganisation within the company to reflect a role being made redundant.
Ms O'Keeffe has not responded to requests for comment on her exit from RTÉ.
She was invited to today's meeting, but said in a statement yesterday that she would be declining the invitation as she had nothing further to add to her statement to the committee last week.
However, there was uproar in the chamber when Mr Lynch said he had received a text from Ms O'Keeffe.
Mr Lynch said: "I received a text from the former CFO, just to say she would dispute the idea that nobody in the executive knew..."
But he was told the committee could not accept second-hand evidence.
Mr Lynch defended his attempt to relay information contained in the text message.
"I received a text, whatever it was, 20 minutes ago. I thought it was very important having made a statement before the house that that should be corrected.
"I thought it was material."
Later, Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy asked if there was a cost-saving over the departure of Ms O'Keeffe given that "the role was still there".
Mr Lynch said he needs "to investigate the detail", repeating that he heard about it for the first time last week.
"Overall, the cost saving was €12.7m, but we need to look into specifically that situation," he said, referring to the programme.
Mr Bakhurst noted that when people take voluntary exit packages, "sometimes one role goes and the argument is that another role within the team is suppressed as a cost-saving, although it's not directly one role for the exact same role."
"So, that's what we need to look into," he added.
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Additional reporting PA
