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25th January 2024
05:28pm GMT
"Information was also withheld from the board. Significant contracts were committed to without the knowledge or approval of the full board.
"The executive should have been interrogated by the board on the project, on an ongoing basis and in a much more rigorous fashion.
"The commercial risks associated with an undertaking of this nature were grossly underestimated. The project was not appropriately stress tested.
"The report also highlights a failure in generally accepted accounting practices, in that sponsorship was not correctly presented to the board and all costs were not properly captured and linked to the project."
[caption id="attachment_790314" align="alignnone" width="2048"]
Siun Ni Raghallaigh and Kevin Bakhurst (Rolling News)[/caption]
A report was released by the RTÉ board in February of last year confirming event sponsorship of €120,000. However, the income figure was lowered to €45,000 in July.
Thursday’s report from Grant Thornton revealed additional costs relating to the musical of €69,628 — which were not previously included in reported figures.
Despite the apology, Ms Ni Raghallaigh, did, however, express her confidence in the board going forward, saying that they accept "collective responsibility".
"There is collective responsibility here," she said on RTE's News At One. "Not just on the part of the board but also on the Executive, and we accept the collective responsibility.
"These board members were there at the time, but I have every confidence in them."
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