RTÉ set to release ‘Toy Show 26’ names

RTÉ will release names of the 26 people linked to the loss-making Toy Show The Musical as early as today – if they give their consent.

A damning 68-page report by independent forensic accountants Grant Thornton into the €2.2million loss-making project found that it required board approval but this was neither sought nor provided.

Instead, it was eventually presented as a ‘fait accompli’ and with ‘such an air of positivity... that the risk wasn’t interrogated’.

Grant Thornton told all those who contributed to the report that their names would be anonymised, in line with the terms of reference of the report commissioned by the RTÉ board. However, the Oireachtas Media Committee demanded that RTÉ reveal the names of all those in the report by midday yesterday. RTÉ has requested that Grant Thornton contact all those who contributed to the report and ask for their consent to be publicly named.

The report refers to those who were interviewed by the auditors as Person 1 to Person 26, and politicians have demanded the anonymisation be lifted so they know where accountability lies.

The chair of the Public Accounts Committee, Brian Stanley, which is also investigating RTÉ, welcomed the move.

The Sinn Féin TD said he would expect all RTÉ managers and board members, past and present, to agree to be named.

He said: ‘We need to know the names of the people who were involved in the various meetings around the musical, particularly those who attended the combo meeting.’

The report revealed that a ‘combo meeting’ was convened on the Toy Show musical venture to which only a select number of board members and executive management were invited.

Former RTÉ board member Ian Kehoe told the Irish Daily Mail that he will consent for his name to be revealed but that his contribution to the report was ‘minor’.

All of the current members of the RTÉ board have consented to be named. They include Anne O’Leary, Susan Ahern, David Harvey, Daire Hickey and PJ Mathews, who were all board members at times of critical decision-making about the musical.

All current members of the RTÉ board have agreed to attend a hearing of the media committee on Wednesday next week, February 14, as politicians look to grill the oversight board on the lapses of control over the Toy Show musical venture.

The board also confirmed that the DG Kevin Bakhurst, will attend next week’s hearing.

However, the committee has not had formal responses from the deputy director general, Adrian Lynch, or the head of human resources, Eimear Cusack. Mr Lynch is one of the only members of the executive at the time who is still with RTÉ.

Asked if Mr Lynch has agreed to be publicly named, RTÉ said it had no comment in advance of formally responding to the committee.