Cianan Brennan: Public royally sick of RTÉ mess, but serious questions remain

The fact that there was no mention at the committee of the €75,000 transferred from RTÉ’s commercial income to bolster the Toy Show musical’s sponsorship figures doesn’t cast the questioners in the best of lights, writes Cianan Brennan

(Left to right) RTE Director General Kevin Bakhurst, RTE board member Siún Ní Raghallaigh and RTE board member Anne O'Leary arriving at Leinster House for the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sports and Media on Wednesday afternoon. Photo: Sam Boal/Collins Photos

At this stage, you would imagine that most Irish people are royally sick of the whole RTÉ debacle.

Eight months is a long time to be listening to endless debate as to what a mess the organisation is. Nevertheless on paper, Wednesday’s meeting of the Media Committee was as important as any hearing to date, given it was convened to discuss the findings of two recently released and much-anticipated reports regarding two separate debacles: the genesis of costly flop, The Toy Show: The Musical and RTÉ’s problematic voluntary redundancy schemes of 2017 and 2021.