Irish Examiner view: RTÉ had been playing with our money
The Around Mittee Chairwoman Media Controversy Raghallaigh The Ryan Board To Ní Payments Arriving To Rte Evidence Siún Of Give Salary Misreported On Picture: Brian Lawless/pa Tubridy's The Wire
The ongoing grilling of senior RTÉ officials remains the only show in town.
Readers could be forgiven for RTÉ fatigue, but this story is set to run for a while yet. As RTÉ board chairwoman Siún Ní Raghallaigh said yesterday, there “is a high probability that more information will emerge in the days and weeks ahead”.
Even if that information emerges, the bar has been set very high when it comes to jaw-dropping revelations.
Yesterday, we learned of a €5,000 bill for flip-flops and an RTÉ worker was loaned a car for five years without approval.
But those may not be the most significant discoveries. The Public Accounts Committee’s focus on RTÉ losing €2.2m on was instructive because it speaks to the tension between the organisation’s public service remit and its commercial activity.
The loss of over €2m on the venture was described as a disgrace and a scandal by one TD at the committee, and an absolute disaster by another, but it should be acknowledged that such productions are inherently risky ventures.
Even the most successful producers of musical theatre have misses as well as hits, and there are no guarantees of success before the curtain goes up for the first time.
In this case, however, the show was backed by RTÉ — this meant the support of the best-resourced media organisation in Ireland when it came to advertising, staging expertise, and brand recognition, giving it every advantage at the start.
When the show flopped the losses were simply absorbed by RTÉ — a commercial venture underwritten by a public service broadcaster. If the show was playing in Las Vegas, the local term would be “playing with house money”. But gambling with licence fee revenue is another RTÉ habit which needs to come to an end.