{"id":527537,"date":"2026-07-01T12:07:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:07:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/527537\/"},"modified":"2026-07-01T12:07:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-01T12:07:12","slug":"rte-spent-e56k-to-send-41-people-to-irelands-play-off-game-in-prague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/527537\/","title":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9 spent \u20ac56k to send 41 people to Ireland\u2019s play-off game in Prague"},"content":{"rendered":"

RT\u00c9 spent almost \u20ac57,000 on sending 41 staff members to cover Ireland\u2019s World Cup playoff match in Czechia last March, new documents reveal. <\/p>\n

In a letter to the D\u00e1il Public Accounts Committee<\/a> (PAC), the broadcaster stood over the cost for the journey, which was approved at director general level. <\/p>\n

Head of public affairs Vivienne Flood said all financial and staffing decisions were based on the determination that there was a \u2018strong public interest\u2019 in the match. <\/p>\n

\"Pay\"RT\u00c9 spent almost \u20ac57,000 on sending 41 staff members to cover Ireland\u2019s World Cup playoff match in Czechia last March, new documents reveal. Pic: Liam McBurney\/PA Wire\/PA Images<\/p>\n

She detailed how RT\u00c9 put a schedule together which \u2018allowed Irish fans who couldn\u2019t be there to join in the excitement\u2019, which was reflected in audience engagement figures. <\/p>\n

The letter, seen by Extra.ie<\/a>, was written to the chairman of the PAC, Sinn F\u00e9in TD John Brady, and circulated to members ahead of a meeting tomorrow morning.<\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 management and senior executives are due to appear before the PAC this month, where it is likely they will face questions over the decision. In the letter ahead of its appearance, Ms Flood says the deployment of staff was authorised by several senior editorial managers, including the directors of video and audio, Steve Carson and Patricia Monahan. <\/p>\n

\"RT\u00c9RT\u00c9 director general Kevin Bakhurst at the funeral of former RT\u00c9 broadcaster David Davin-Power. Pic: Colin Keegan\/Collins Dublin<\/p>\n

The letter adds that deputy director general Adrian Lynch and director general Kevin Bakhurst<\/a> extended their \u2018full support\u2019 to sending staff to Prague. <\/p>\n

The station spent \u20ac56,756.32 on travel, accommodation and expenses, a portion of which were \u2018offset by the contribution of a commercial sponsor\u2019, Ms Flood wrote.<\/p>\n

She said details surrounding the sponsorship deal were \u2018commercially sensitive\u2019 and did not provide the name of the sponsor or related costs to the PAC. <\/p>\n

\"ireland\"Republic of Ireland supporters. Pic: Stephen McCarthy\/Sportsfile<\/p>\n

Promo material from the time claims RT\u00c9\u2019s coverage was \u2018in association with\u2019 Cadbury, which was contacted for comment. Mr Bakhurst told the Oireachtas in May that the station earned a profit, despite the number of staff it sent to Prague. <\/p>\n

RT\u00c9 claims that, among the 41 staff, 12 were in on-air presenter roles, six were journalists reporting on the game and 12 served in editorial production roles. <\/p>\n

Nine were sent as part of a tech team for live broadcasts, and two more commercial team members were sent as part of a sponsorship deal. <\/p>\n

\"16\/11\/2023Pic: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin<\/p>\n

Extra.ie has identified 20 of the 41 staff members and contractors, including from the News and Current Affairs Department, who were in attendance and broadcasting live from Prague. <\/p>\n

Staff from outside the Sport Department included RT\u00c9 News Eastern correspondent Samantha Libreri, 2FM presenters Demi Isaac and Mikey O\u2019Reilly, and Liveline\u2019s Kieran Cuddihy. <\/p>\n

Radio producers Damien Gavigan and Ciar\u00e1n Cullen were credited by Mr Cuddihy, Ms Isaac, and Mr O\u2019Reilly at the end of their programmes, which were hosted live from Prague. <\/p>\n

Sports correspondent Paul O\u2019Flynn, soccer correspondent Tony O\u2019Donoghue and reporter and podcast host Raf Diallo were deployed to report on the match. <\/p>\n

Sports presenters Darragh Maloney, Des Cahill and Marie Crowe provided television and radio coverage. Ms Crowe hosted RT\u00c9\u2019s Inside Sport, produced on site by Tom Norton and Adrian Eames. <\/p>\n

Didi Hamann and Shay Given appeared as pundits from the stadium, with presenter Mr Maloney. Pundits John Kenny and Kenny Cunningham provided live commentary on RT\u00c9 Radio 1. <\/p>\n

Additionally, commentators Des Curran and Ronnie Whelan were at the Fortuna Arena on the night for RT\u00c9\u2019s TV coverage. RT\u00c9\u2019s Ms Flood, in her letter, wrote that the audience statistics showed there was \u2018exceptionally high public interest in this event\u2019. <\/p>\n

She said audiences\u2019 needs were \u2018effectively met\u2019 and cited commitments in RT\u00c9\u2019s strategy to remain \u2018relevant\u2019. <\/p>\n

Appearing before the Oireachtas Media Committee in May, Mr Bakhurst said RT\u00c9 earned a profit from the trip. <\/p>\n

He said: \u2018Of the 41 people who went, 21 were for radio coverage. Alongside our public service commitment, the amount of commercial revenue that was driven by those radio programmes, in terms of extra advertising and sponsorship, more than paid for all of those people to go. In fact, we made a profit on it for those 21 people.\u2019 <\/p>\n

According to the letter, the match<\/a> was the \u2018most-watched programme\u2019 of the year on Irish TV, and reached 1.6million viewers at its peak. Another 1.06million streamed it on RT\u00c9 Player, the highest number of concurrent viewers ever recorded for a programme on the platform. <\/p>\n

Ms Flood said radio listenership rose by 120% between 8pm and 10pm, compared with the previous day. Listenership from 10pm to midnight was up by 268%. <\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for RT\u00c9 echoed her remarks, saying the live broadcasts \u2018provided coverage of this national movement across a number of days\u2019. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"RT\u00c9 spent almost \u20ac57,000 on sending 41 staff members to cover Ireland\u2019s World Cup playoff match in Czechia…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":527538,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[93,61,60,282],"class_list":["post-527537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-tv"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=527537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/527537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/527538"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=527537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=527537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=527537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}