I was ‘betrayed’ by top execs over Toy Show musical, says RTÉ’s risk assessor
THE head of RTÉ’s risk committee yesterday said she felt ‘completely betrayed’ by the failure of top executives to provide her with a financial analysis for the €2.2million flop Toy Show The Musical.
Yesterday it was revealed that former RTÉ board chair Moya Doherty asked that memos on the risks, costs and ticket sales for Toy Show The Musical not be shared before a key meeting that ‘green-lit’ the costly flop.
Anne O’Leary, the chair of the RTÉ board’s Audit and Risk Committee (ARC), also accused former director general Dee Forbes and ex-head of strategy Rory Coveney of having ‘deliberately circumvented’ procedure around the multi-millioneuro commercial failure.
Ms O’Leary said more
‘Assumed they were careful’
than 30 other big projects undertaken by RTÉ in the preceding decade, of similar value to the Toy Show musical, had gone through the ‘robust’ process of board approval and examination at the ARC. ‘Rory Coveney and Dee Forbes deliberately circumvented that procedure,’ she told the Oireachtas Media Committee yesterday. ‘I was used to that, I trusted that. You’ve got to remember again, we and our team [the board] are part time. ‘I assumed that they were careful executives, that they would do their jobs and they would bring it to the audit risk. And they didn’t, so yes, I do feel betrayed.’ Formal approval by the RTÉ board for the musical, which recorded a €2.2million loss after a single season in 2022, was neither sought nor provided, despite it being a requirement projects costing for more than €2million.
The chair of the Media Committee, Niamh Smyth, said she was under the impression that some actions ‘intended to deceive the board members who were there at the time about what the real picture was around Toy Show The Musical’.
Ms O’Leary said she believed there was ‘an element of deception’ that ‘deliberately kept it away from the rigorous interrogation’ of the Audit and Risk Committee of RTÉ.
Mr Coveney, who was called the ‘driving force’ behind the musical venture, refused to come before the Oireachtas Media Committee to answer questions about the flop.
Ms Doherty, co-creator of Riverdance, sent the committee her apologies that she could not attend, and Ms Forbes’s solicitors responded to say that the former DG could not attend due to medical reasons.
No financial analysis was presented to the
ARC or the RTÉ board in advance of tickets going on sale for the musical despite repeated requests from Ms O’Leary.
She said her requests to Ms Forbes and Mr Coveney were ‘ignored’ and she also raised the issue with Ms Doherty.
Ms O’Leary said there was ‘absolute pushback’ to her requests for information.
‘I went to the chairwoman herself [Ms Doherty] and I kept being told this has been done and dusted, [that] it’s going to be one of the best things that’s ever happened to RTÉ, and it’s going to be a huge commercial success,’ Ms O’Leary said.
She added that she first heard of the Toy Show musical in March 2022 when she was invited to a meeting about an ‘exciting’ commercial venture for RTÉ. She said the project was presented as a ‘fait accompli’ at the meeting.
Ms O’Leary said that at this point, those in charge of the musical presented the idea of using the 1,995-seater Convention Centre in Dublin as the venue, and that she questioned this. She said she asked: ‘Why would you choose the Convention Centre? Would you not try and go for a theatre like the Gaiety or something and try it out first?’
The chair of the ARC attended this ‘combo meeting’ which Mr Coveney said he understood to have ‘green-lit’ the musical. However, she said that at no point were the select board members present asked to give approval.
Before the combo meeting, Ms Doherty refused a suggestion that the material being presented to the board members be circulated in advance. She said that it could be provided afterwards; however, no such material was provided afterwards to those who attended.
‘Told it’s done and dusted’’