It is a ‘bit of a farcical situation’ that the key people behind the flop Toy Show musical are not available to appear before the Oireachtas today, the Chair of the Oireachtas Media Committee has said.

RTÉ will today face another grilling in front of the committee as they are questioned on the project that lost RTÉ over €2 million.

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, committee Chair Niamh Smyth said several of the key decision makers behind the project are not making themselves available to the committee.

“I'm very conscious that today's deliberation is about Toy Show The Musical and the key people whose brainchild and vanity project this became are not in the room, which seems a bit of a farcical situation,” she said.

“Some are not available, some have given personal reasons – Dee Forbes, as you know, has presented a sick note.”

“There's no sick notes present presented by anybody else, just ‘unavailable’ – so it's certainly something we'll consider into the very near future about compellability in relation to those people who are not making themselves available today.”

"Farcical"

Deputy Smyth said she is particularly disappointed that former RTÉ Director of Strategy Rory Coveney and former Chair of the RTÉ Board Moya Doherty would not be attending.

“It is farcical to be having the conversation without the key people that were the brainchild, particularly of Toy Show The Musical and that is Mr Coveney and Ms Doherty, they were certainly the driving force and they were also, to my mind, the force within the organisation that was overriding the outside expertise that was [advising them against running the show],” she said.

The RTÉ executives that are appearing today will also face questions on expenditure, governance, and future funding at the organisation.

"Parallel universe"

Deputy Smyth said there was “definitely a parallel universe” within the broadcaster in terms of the way it treated its executives compared to its staff.

“Well, I've met, in recent days, with some of the staff who are currently employed in RTÉ and those who are not employed – people who were self-employed when they should have been, in fact, employees of RTÉ,” she said.

“Really difficult stories and very truthful and honest stories, a lot from women, who didn't receive their maternity leave, who didn't receive the benefits that RTÉ employees would ordinarily get.

“More importantly, employees who are coming to retirement age and those who are sitting at home retired today without any pension.

“For them to have watched sweetheart deals being created for members of the executive as their severance packages were created, there definitely was a parallel universe within RTÉ and I think HR and the legal section within RTÉ will certainly have questions to answer on all of that.”

The RTÉ representatives appearing today include Director General Kevin Bakhurst and RTÉ Board Chairperson Siún Ní Raghallaigh.

You can listen back to Deputy Smyth here: