Executives of the Toy Show The Musical have reportedly been asked to appear before the Dáil later this month.
It’s understood RTÉ made a €2.2 million loss on the stage production in 2022.
The broadcaster predicted it would rake in €3.2 million (75,000 tickets); however, it actually only brought in €451,000 (11,044 tickets).
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.
In a recent report, RTÉ confirmed a “significant lapse in oversight of the project.”
A Public Accounts Committee member told The Irish Sun: “We have written to Kevin Bakhurst and asked him to invite the key people behind the Musical to come with him to the Committee.”
“We want to hear from the key decision makers involved because there is a lot of questions to answer on how this all went ahead and how RTÉ reacted.”
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.
“The Executive should have been interrogated by the Board on the project, on an ongoing basis and in a much more rigorous fashion,” it added.
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.”
