There was a “lapse of control” around the ill-fated Toy Show the Musical and a failure by the board of RTÉ to halt the project, according to minutes of RTÉ board meetings.
The musical, which ran over several weeks in the Convention Centre in Dublin last Christmas, made a loss of €2.2 million.
Siún Ní Raghallaigh, chair of the RTÉ board, said there had been “no risk assessment” carried out on the project, which pointed to a “weakness in board controls”. Minutes of a July 3rd meeting show that she said there had been “a lapse of control and lack of rigorous interrogation by the board”.
Directors agreed that there should have been “more stress testing” of the project when it was proposed.
“The board noted that they were aware of the project and the figures and did not halt the project but in their view it came to the board as a fait accompli,” minutes of the meeting stated.
Senior RTÉ managers “should have provided a risk assessment” to the board on the proposal, the minutes note.
Adrian Lynch, then RTÉ interim deputy director general, said the project “had the involvement and support of the previous chair”, Moya Doherty, who was a co-founder and producer of Riverdance in the 1990s.
One board member, PJ Mathews, told the meeting that the plan to stage the musical “came out of a commercial imperative to derive additional commercial income”.
A board meeting on September 21st last heard the financial crisis facing the organisation was “very severe”.
Mike Fives, RTÉ group financial controller, said it was projected that income from the TV licence fee would be down €21 million by the end of the year.
Earlier this week, the Government agreed to provide €56 million in additional funding to RTÉ after the organisation set out plans to reduce its workforce by 400 staff by 2028.
Ms Ní Raghallaigh told the September board meeting that RTÉ would run out of cash by next April if it did not receive a bailout.
The minutes note that Kevin Bakhurst, RTÉ director general, said the broadcaster had taken several measures to save money, such as “pausing big contracts”.
Ms Ní Raghallaigh said “a lot of the costs of the organisation are people costs so the number of levers for cost cutting are limited”.
The meeting heard that there had been no transactions through the controversial barter account, which was linked to previous excessive spending, since April.
The board meeting discussed plans to sell a site RTÉ owned in Ballinure, Co Tipperary, while also noting a valuation was being sought for a building the broadcaster owned in Cork.
There had been plans to “dispose” of a further site in Moydrum, Co Westmeath, to a local heritage group, which had fallen through. The board meeting heard RTÉ were “exploring other strategic options for this site”.
