‘No formal RTE board vote on flop musical’
»»Doherty: Stage show ‘approved by consensus’ »»Coveney ‘driving force’ behind the huge project
FORMER RTE Board chairperson Moya Doherty agreed that the Board should have signed off on the flopped Toy Show the Musical project but claimed it was “approved by consensus”.
The Riverdance founder argued no one “objected” to the project despite members of the RTE Board saying the musical was a “fait accompli” by the time they were told about it.
RTE caved to political pressure and published an unredacted copy of the report on the Toy Show the Musical disaster yesterday.
The report, compiled by Grant Thornton, found many RTE Board members only found out about the project in April or May when the Convention Centre had been booked and tickets had gone on sale.
This was despite the fact that Toy Show the Musical should have been signed off on by the RTE Board.
Rory Coveney, RTE’S former Director of Strategy and brother of Fine Gael deputy leader Simon, was described as being the “driving force” behind the musical.
The report found that the RTE Board should have signed off on the project and that Moya Doherty “agrees that approval from the Board of RTE was required”. However, she stated that “no formal vote was taken by the Board” and the “project was approved by consensus by the Board”.
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.”
RTE Board member PJ Mathews told the report “tacit approval was not given. Rather, on the basis that TSTM was presented as a fait accompli, an objection was not raised”.
David Harvey of the RTE Board said: “There was simply no choice and [it was] presented as a fait accompli.
“It had been underway for months with no approval from the RTE Board.”
At a “combo meeting” on March 29 2022 where the musical was discussed were among others some members of the RTE Board and Executive.
Mr Coveney said the “meeting was assembled by [redacted by Grant Thornton] and Moya in consultation with each other”.
He listed a group of people “they” wanted to attend and noted “they wanted a blend of people”.
Mr Coveney continued: “Ultimately, I spoke to [redacted by Grant Thornton] and I said, ‘Look, we need to bring this to the Board.’ [Redacted by Grant Thornton] and Moya spoke. This was the process they wanted to go through.”
In response, Ms Doherty said that it is “clear” all references to “they” are references to the person referred to as “redacted by Grant Thornton. I attended that meeting at the invitation of the [redacted by Grant Thornton].
“The extent of my involvement was to suggest the Executive speak to [Riverdance Producer Julian] Erskine and engage the necessary expertise.
“I also suggested RTE CEL, the commercial arm of RTE, be involved as this was a commercial venture.”