RTÉ spends €155,000 on wining and dining TV show audiences

RTÉ spent more than €150,000 on wining and dining audiences during the last television season.

The hospitality costs were highest for Gay Byrne’s Class Reunion series, as he brought his audience to the five-star Radisson SAS hotel in Dublin before each show.

The cost of refreshments, at €2,400 per programme, was far higher than for Pat Kenny’s Late Late Show, which provided in-house catering for its audience at a cost of €1,431 per show.