RTÉ ‘knew of TV show in 2004’

THE managing director of RTÉ Radio, Clare Duignan, told the High Court she had become aware of plans for Celebrity Bainisteoir about three years before a man who has now brought a legal action for damages against the station claiming it was his original idea and had allegedly been stolen by RTÉ.

Patrick Kinsella of Callowhill, Newtown, Co Wicklow has taken the proceedings against RTÉ and commissioning editor Grainne McAleer and producer Alice O’Sullivan together with Fiona Looney, a columnist with the Daily Mail group of newspapers. She is credited with being the creator of the reality show, which has now run for three series.

Mr Kinsella is claiming damages and says his idea is worth millions.

Ms Duignan told Mr Justice Birmingham, on the second day of the hearing yesterday, the project was first submitted to RTÉ in 2004 but she was not aware of it at that time because it had been turned down.

However, in 2005 it was looked at again and she became aware of it because it required funding from December of that year. She understood the project came before the station with the title Celebrity Bainisteoir. At the time she was director of RTÉ television programmes.

The RTÉ chief said she was aware of the project from December 2005 and members of her staff were actively engaged with the programme from August of that year.

Approval was given for €20,000 towards development work on the project and they were shooting some video to see how it worked in 2006 before agreeing to a decision to put the project into production.

In reply to questions from Mr Kinsella, who is conducting his own case and is not legally represented, Ms Duignan said: “My understanding of the issue is whether RTÉ had an awareness of Celebrity Bainisteoir which predates your (Mr Kinsella’s) approach and I am specifically saying here that I did.”

Mr Kinsella, who says he is a businessman with 28 years experience as a scriptwriter, says he first approached RTÉ with the idea for a programme to be called “Top Coach/Top Manager or Top Team” in August 2007 when he was told this was a “non-runner”.

The former managing director of RTÉ Mr Cathal Goan is expected to give evidence today.