The Audit and Risk chair Anne O’Leary has revealed that she “suggested smaller venue” for Toy Show: The Musical during this afternoon’s Oireachtas Committee hearing.
Earlier this month, executives of the musical were asked to appear before the Dáil over it’s €2.2 million loss.
At 1.30pm this afternoon, the committee met to discuss governance and transparency issues within RTÉ, as well as future funding challenges facing the national broadcaster.
The RTÉ exec said she had suggested using a smaller theatre like the Gaiety rather than the Convention Centre for Toy Show: The Musical.
Sinn Féin TD Imelda Munster asked the boardmember: “So that was your question as the chair of the Audit and Risk Committee?”
Ms O’Leary said that she had also asked: “When are we going to get the risk analysis? When are we going to get the financial model?”
Asked when that risk analysis arrived, Ms O’Leary said, “It didn’t.”
Spend on the musical, which took place in Dublin’s Convention Centre in December 2022, was the focus of public scrutiny last year when the payments scandal erupted.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland before the Committee hearing, Fianna Fáil TD Niamh Smyth said: “Unfortunately, a lot of the key players who are involved in the Toy Show itself and the driving forces behind, them such as Rory Coveney and Maya Doherty, and obviously Dee Forbes, will not be available or in in the room today.”
Former RTÉ Director of Strategy Rory Coveney, former chair of the RTÉ Board Moya Doherty, former chief financial officer Breda O’Keeffe, and former director-general Dee Forbes were all invited to attend today’s hearing.
Niamh continued: “It is farcical that the key people who are the brainchild of the RTÉ the musical piece are not going to be in the room, I don’t think that that is acceptable.”
“The key people involved in all of this, not just the exit packages, not just the Toy Show The Musical, the broader picture on culture and how the board are treated and how the relationship is, are not going to be in the room.”
“We’re very mindful of that and to conclude any sort of substantial report, I think we need to have a conversation with those people.”
The TD also said that a “number of apologies sent to the committee” were made in “recent days” and that this limited the committee’s “scope for compellability prior to today’s meeting”.
“So we have to work with what we’ve got and who’s in the room and then consider our position into the next phase.”
However, the Fianna Fáil spokesperson on Arts, Culture & Heritage said: “There’s a lot that can be achieved in our interrogation with the board”.
This comes after a report into the musical found that formal approval by the board for the show was neither sought nor provided, despite that being a requirement for projects with expenditure of above €2 million.
On Tuesday, RTÉ released a revised report on the Toy Show: The Musical following calls to name the board members involved.
In the new report, 20 of those interviewed have consented to the inclusion of their names.
In a statement from the RTÉ board, the broadcaster said: “In compiling, preparing and producing its independent Report on Toy Show The Musical, Grant Thornton, in applying its methodology under its Terms of Reference to prepare the Report, made the decision to anonymise individuals’ names.”
“Following requests from the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport & Media and two Oireachtas committees for anonymity to be removed from the Report, RTÉ asked Grant Thornton if it could facilitate these requests. Grant Thornton subsequently contacted each individual included in the Report to ask if they would consent to their anonymity being removed.”
“Attached herewith is the resulting revised Report – in which 20 of those interviewed have consented to the inclusion of their names.”
The statement continued: “In line with its standard practice, the names of staff below Executive level in RTÉ will continue to be redacted.”
“All RTÉ Board members attending the Joint Oireachtas Committee this week consented to their names being included in the Grant Thornton Report and are happy to discuss the Grant Thorton Report into Toy Show The Musical in more detail with the Committee members, in order to provide the assurance needed that governance structures have been appropriately reformed and strengthened.”
For the full report click here.
The broadcaster predicted it would rake in €3.2 million (75,000 tickets); however, it actually only brought in €451,000 (11,044 tickets).
In a statement, Siún Ní Raghallaigh, Chair of the RTÉ Board said about the musical: “The Board acknowledged the serious deficiencies now highlighted in the Report at a Board meeting last July and has since taken the necessary steps to ensure there is no repeat of these failures.”
“The Report finds that Board approval was required for Toy Show the Musical, and it also finds that the formal approval of the Board was neither sought nor provided for.
“The Report clearly illustrates that the Board was not kept appropriately informed about the project as it was being developed. 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.
It continued: “The Executive should have been interrogated by the Board on the project, on an ongoing basis and in a much more rigorous fashion.”
The statement that was released in January, goes on to admit that “the commercial risks associated with an undertaking of this nature were grossly underestimated. The project was not appropriately stress tested.”
“The Report also highlights a failure in generally accepted accounting practices, in that sponsorship was not correctly presented to the Board and all costs were not properly captured and linked to the project.”.
Siún Ní Raghallaigh also added: “As Chair of the RTÉ Board I would like to apologise to the public and to the staff of RTÉ. The Board is focused on driving the change necessary to fully restore confidence in the organisation, and to working with Government to establish a sustainable funding model that will ensure that RTÉ can continue to deliver on its important public service media remit.”
