The chair of RTÉ’s board has apologised for a “significant lapse in oversight” of Toy Show The Musical and committed to changes in governance so that it would not happen again.
Siún Ní Raghallaigh said that information was withheld from the board about Toy Show The Musical and that RTÉ executives should have been interrogated by board members “in a much more rigorous fashion”.
A Grant Thornton report commissioned by the RTÉ board was published on Thursday into the musical, which recorded €2.2 million in losses after a season at Dublin’s Convention Centre in 2022.
The board chair apologised to the public and to the staff of RTÉ for a “significant lapse in oversight of the project”, and said changes would be made “to fully restore confidence in the organisation”.
“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,” Ms Ní Raghallaigh said.
“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.
“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.”
