RTÉ Board 'happy' to attend committees over Toy Show musical report

Chairperson of RTÉ Board Siun Ni Raghallaigh (right) and RTÉ director Kevin Bakhurst. Picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie

The RTÉ Board has said it is “happy to attend” the Public Accounts Committee and the Joint Committee on Media to discuss the findings of an independent report into Toy Show: The Musical.

In a statement, it said it had informed the committees of its availability and added: “The report published earlier today confirmed a significant lapse in oversight of Toy Show The Musical.

“The board acknowledges this and has since taken the necessary steps to ensure there is no repeat of these failures.

“We would welcome an opportunity to discuss this in more detail with the committees in order to provide the assurance needed that governance structures have been appropriately reformed and strengthened.”

It comes after RTÉ Board Chair Siun Ní Raghallaigh apologised to both the public and the broadcaster’s staff after a report into the musical revealed the venture had “grossly underestimated” the commercial risks surrounding it.

The report, compiled by consultants Grant Thornton and published on Thursday afternoon, found that the RTÉ board had neither given official approval for the musical, nor had it been sought from them.

The show made a €2.2m loss after a brief run at Dublin’s convention centre in December 2022.

Commenting on the report’s findings, the RTÉ chair said: “I would like to apologise to the public and to the staff of RTÉ.” 

In a statement accompanying the long-awaited report Ms Ni Raghallaigh said that the executive of RTÉ “should have been interrogated by the board on the project, on an ongoing basis and in a much more rigorous fashion”, adding that those failings amounted to “a significant lapse in oversight” of the project.

“The report clearly illustrates that the board was not kept appropriately informed about the project as it was being developed,” she said.

“External expert advice was ignored. Information was also withheld from the board. Significant contracts were committed to without the knowledge or approval of the full board.” 

Ms Ni Raghallaigh said that the “commercial risks associated with an undertaking of this nature were grossly underestimated”.

“The project was not appropriately stress tested,” she said, adding that the report also highlighted failings in "generally accepted” accounting practices, given the musical’s “sponsorship was not correctly presented to the board and all costs were not properly captured and linked to the project”.

Restoring confidence

She said that the board nevertheless is “focused on driving the change necessary to fully restore confidence in the organisation”.

While resignations from the board — given its failed oversight of the project — had been mooted, Ms Ni Raghallaigh made no such commitments in her statement.

She said that risk assessment “is now central in all decision-making" carried out by RTÉ’s interim leadership team, the successor to the previous executive board.

She said the board now receives the minutes of all meetings of the leadership team, and that a formal approval process has now been established for “significant expenditure projects”.

Reaction

The Taoiseach has said the board of RTÉ should have been more robust in questioning the short-lived Toy Show Musical which lost more than €2m. 

Leo Varadkar said proper corporate governance and accounting procedures had not been followed after an investigation into the €2.2m lossmaking musical was published.

"I think quite frankly, the board could have asked more questions to be more inquisitive about what happened," Mr Varadkar said.