Minister needs to consider positions of remaining RTÉ board members over Toy Show musical fiasco – Dillon

The position of the remaining RTÉ board members needs to be quickly considered by the Communications Minister following the report into ‘Toy Show the Musical’, a Fine Gael TD has said.

Deputy Alan Dillon, who serves on the Oireachtas Media Committee, said the positions of the five remaining RTÉ board members who were in situ at the time of €2.2m project getting the green light is no longer tenable.

“The whole expensive fiasco might one day indeed be made into a musical or on-stage production it is so farcical. The report today states, the RTÉ board who should have oversight of such affairs, did not have their approval for the project recorded.

“Board members, who are in senior positions of authority, did not seriously question the project or even why were they been asked just to rubber stamp it. They did not give it due diligence or interrogation.

“They asked a few questions and let it proceed and become the subsequent €2.2m flop it represented,” Deputy Dillon said.

“This report confirms what our Oireachtas Committee already established during our hearings with RTÉ last Summer

“The Minister and the current board chair must now focus on the accountability for the governance issues described by the report. It’s not credible for the board to claim ignorance when board members were exposed to a presentation on the project.

“The report confirms that the entire executive team at RTÉ during this time was completely failing in their duties. The lack of a proper market research, risk assessment and a business plan underscores the complete failure in RTE’s accountability and governance.

“There’s a feeling that the board has been asleep when revelations of this kind are allowed to happen.

“A project of this size should have gone before the audit and risk committee. It’s not acceptable for the board to wash their hands of this.

“Last year, RTÉ was refusing to hand over details relating to the Toy Show musical.

“Eventually, we got access to a briefing around the cost of production and the €2.2m losses it recorded. It was a spectacular flop and the TV license payees should rightly be angered by what has happened.

“We have one casualty relating to this fiasco in the resignation of Rory Coveney, who signed off on this contract and who was aware that decisions of this nature were made without formal oversight from the board.

“These findings underscore the urgent need for reform and accountability within RTÉ. The public deserves transparency and responsible governance from our national broadcaster.

“As we anticipate the upcoming release of the second report examining whether staff severance deals at the broadcaster were managed correctly and given RTÉ’s ongoing inability to supply our Committee with a variety of requested information, I believe it’s high time we sought additional dialogue with the RTÉ board – while they still remain – and top executives.

“We need to discuss recent developments and determine why the information we’ve asked for hasn’t been provided,” Deputy Dillon said.