RTÉ HAS RELEASED an updated version of the Grant Thornton report into Toy Show The Musical which now names 20 people who were interviewed for the review.
The original report, which was published last month, anonymised those who were interviewed.
In a statement this afternoon, RTÉ said: “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.”
The broadcaster said that the 20 people consented to the inclusion of their names, adding that the names of staff below Executive level will continue to be redacted “in line with its standard practice.”
The report found that that the amount of commercial sponsorship Toy Show The Musical received was overstated by €75,000, even though the actual amount of money that came in through sponsors was clearly recorded.
The probe also found that the approval of the RTÉ board for Toy Show the Musical was “neither sought nor provided for, though it was required for the project to go ahead.
The updated version of the Grant Thornton report states that Julian Erskine, who was the producer of Riverdance for 26 years, was the person who flagged concerns about the financial risks of the musical.
Erskine, who attended a key Executive board meeting related to the musical told the Grant Thornton investigator: “I had said at the very start that you understand in this business that nine out of ten musicals don’t make their money back.”
He said that he was positive about the musical and that it was not “unusual nowadays for entertainment events to sell out, sometimes in minutes if the demand is there”.
He also said he was very disappointed that the reaction to the tickets going on sale was only 3,000 out of 108,000 being sold, and that despite a strong advertising push “on all RTÉ channels”, only a further 2,000 tickets were sold the following week.
The updated report states that Erskine expressed his concerns to Rory Coveney, RTÉ’s former Director of Strategy who oversaw the production of Toy Show The Musical.
Coveney told the investigator that at that stage, the week after the tickets went live, the broadcaster was “locked in”.
“The costs were largely committed. We were up and running. I think it wouldn’t have been tenable to have pulled it,” he said.
Coveney also told the investigator: “In fairness, [Erskine] was concerned about the break-even all the way through”.
The updated report also states that Moya Doherty, who was the chair of the RTÉ Board until November 2022, told the investigator that “no formal vote was taken” by the board to approve Toy Show The Musical.
Doherty said that the project was presented by the RTÉ executive to the board on 28 April 2022. She said that approval from the board was required as the cost was over €2 million.
“Every Board member had the opportunity to ask questions, raise objections or disapprove of the project,” she said.
“There were no objections raised by any Board member to the proposed expenditure. The practice at Board meetings was to reach consensus if possible and if a consensus was reached no formal vote was taken.”
The report also states that the overwhelming view taken from interactions with several board members was that the presentation of Toy Show The Musical at a meeting on 29 March 2022 was a “briefing” or was a “fait accompli”.
Ian Kehoe, who was a member of the Board of Directors and a member of the Audit and Risk Committee, said: “At this point, you have to bear in mind this was presented blind.
“One is asking questions, having been invited to a meeting you don’t know what it was about, so, you know, you are picking up questions as you are going through it.”
He also said that “based upon reviewing my notes and how it went through, of course it was a fait accompli.”
Anne O’Leary, who was a board member, also told the investigator: “It was being presented as a fait accompli.”
RTÉ said its board members attending the Joint Oireachtas Committee this week consented to their names being included in the report and are happy to discuss the report in more detail “in order to provide the assurance needed that governance structures have been appropriately reformed and strengthened.”
The 20 people named in the updated report, with their titles at the time, are:
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