A successful Donegal man who rose to the top of the BBC is at the centre of a political controversy after it was revealed he received an astonishing €1Million redundancy payment.
MPs in London say they will investigate how Donegal native Patrick Loughrey left the BBC with a cool Stg£866,000 package.
The broadcaster’s former director general Mark Thompson will be grilled in the House of Commons next week about the huge payout to Mr Loughrey and other retiring executives.
The Irish Post reports that Mr Loughrey was given an £866,000 redundancy settlement by the corporation, including 12 months’ pay ‘in lieu of notice’ despite claims he agreed his leaving date 14 months previously and worked out his notice.
The Public Accounts Committee says Mr Thompson “is likely to be questioned about the significant severance packages that he approved while in office”.
Mr Loughrey is referred to as “Case study 1” in a repoort and was the BBC’s Director of Nations and Regions before departing in 2009.
He says his severance payments were “made in fulfilment of longstanding entitlements” and “approved at the highest level”.
The National Audit Office report states that the £300,000 Mr Loughrey was given in lieu of notice as one part of his settlement was “inconsistent” with BBC policy and criticised Mr Thompson for approving it.
“This case provides an example of a departing senior manager receiving their maximum pay in lieu of notice (£300,000), despite the fact that they worked their notice,” it added.
Mr Loughrey, who is now the Warden of London’s Goldsmiths University, secured a further £300,000 in redundancy payment and £266,288 “pension augmentation” as part of his “early retirement”.
Mr Loughrey declined to respond to The Irish Post and instead re-issued an earlier statement.
“As you will be aware from the National Audit Office Report, certain staff names were anonymised by the BBC in order to comply with data protection law,” it stated.
“You will also know from the report that there are clauses in their employment contracts which prohibit those individuals from disclosing details about their severance payments.
“Given this, I consider I am unable to respond to the specific questions you have raised.
“I would however like to make clear that any severance payments I received when I left the BBC after many years’ service were made in fulfilment of longstanding contractual entitlements and approved at the highest level.”
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