RTÉ transferred €75,000 in TV advertising money to ‘sponsorship’ of Toy Show The Musical amid concerns over low sales, a new report suggests.

A report into the €2.3 million box office flop carried out by Grant Thornton has been published this afternoon.

The report notes that the €75,000 was transferred to the Toy Show musical in January 2023, inflating the level of sponsorship the show had received from €45,000 to €120,000.

In July, a matter of weeks after news or RTÉ’s undeclared payments to Ryan Tubridy first came to light, the extra funds were taken away again following a meeting of the RTÉ Board’s Audit and Risk Committee.

The authors of the Grant Thornton report note that the transfer of the money from TV sponsorship to the musical was "not in line with generally accepted accounting practices".

They note that they spent a significant amount of time trying to understand the rationale behind the transfer.

Toy Show The Musical

The report finds ‘no evidence’ that the RTÉ Board gave the live event the go-ahead in the first place – although it notes that there is a “diversity of views” on the matter.

It notes that not all directors were asked to meet to formally discuss the musical.

RTÉ Board

In a statement, the Chair of the RTE Board Siún Ní Raghallaigh said board approval was required for the musical but formal approval was neither sought nor provided.

She said the report clearly shows that the Board was not kept appropriately informed about the project while it was in development.

She said external expert advice was “ignored” and information was also withheld from the Board.

“Significant contracts were committed to without the knowledge or approval of the full Board,” she said.

“The Executive should have been interrogated by the Board on the project on an ongoing basis and in a much more rigorous fashion,” she said.

“The commercial risks associated with an undertaking of this nature were grossly underestimated. The project was not appropriately stress tested.”

Chair of the RTÉ Board Siún Ni Raghallaigh leaving the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee. Picture by: Sam Boal/RollingNews.ie

Ms Ní Raghallaigh said the relationship between the board and executive has been redefined in the months since.

She said risk assessment is now “central in all decision making” and a formal approval process has been established for projects with significant expenditure.

She apologised to the public and staff at RTÉ and said the board is fully focused on restoring confidence in the organisation.

The Grant Thornton report finds that the production lost a total of €2.272 million.