The commercial partnership between RTÉ and Penneys has been in place for 10 years, during which Penneys donated more than €650,000 to children’s hospital charities and the RTÉ Toy Show Appeal while promoting its family pyjama sets and accessories on the live show.
Last year, it paid €100,000 to the RTÉ Toy Show Appeal and a further €20,000 to Children’s Health Foundation to help sick children seeking medical care.
The RTÉ Investigates programme aired on Wednesday night and uncovered how Bangladeshi factories who supplied major Irish retailers, including Penneys, were sourcing cotton from Chinese suppliers that had used Uyghur workers under a Chinese state-backed forced labour programme.
In a statement, RTÉ explained why the partnership has been ended for this year.
Patrick Kielty during the of the 2024 Late Late Toy Show. Photo: Andres Poveda / RTÉ̇
Today’s News in 90 Seconds – September 25th
“The RTÉ Late Late Toy Show partnership with Penneys will not go ahead this year for a number of reasons relating to challenges in adhering to the timeline necessary to ensure key deadlines could be met,” the statement said.
It said the partnership would be revisited for the 2026 instalment of The Late Late Toy Show.
The broadcaster also addressed the the RTÉ Investigates programme, saying that RTÉ “conducts due diligence on all commercial partners and keeps all commercial partnerships under review”.
It added that any ethical or environmental issues relating to commercial partners would be reviewed by RTÉ.
Primark released a statement saying the partnership was “paused” because the “Penneys ordering deadline for The Late Late Toy Show pyjamas coincided with the initial conversations with RTÉ Investigates.”
The chain was responding to ethical issues raised in the Wednesday night programme.
“There is no suggestion of any link between the [Toy Show] range and the questions raised in the programme,” Primark said in its statement to RTÉ Investigates, adding that it was “very proud” of its partnership to date and “looked forward to revisiting the partnership next year”.
RTÉ said it “has had and continues to have relationships with a wide range of retailers, including those named in the programme”.
The UN said in 2022 that abuses carried out by China were tantamount to crimes against humanity.
The Late Late Toy Show will air this year on Friday, December 5 hosted by Patrick Kielty.