Brendan Griffin (Kerry, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Cathaoirleach. I welcome everyone back and thank them for being with us. I acknowledge the witnesses here with us today. I also acknowledge that we do not have Ian Kehoe, Dee Forbes, Geraldine O'Leary, Breda O'Keeffe, Jim Jennings, Richard Collins, Conor Murphy, Rory Coveney and Moya Doherty with us. Various reasons were given by those people for not being here, but I reiterate here on the record that this committee is anxious to hear from these people at some stage in the future, but as soon as possible. On behalf of the people, we want to know what really went on, and the aforementioned people are crucial to our inquiries. It is not good enough that so many people were unable to attend. We all accept their health reasons in some cases, but that everyone could not attend, or chose not to, is simply not good enough. We will have to follow up further on this aspect. I thank the witnesses who are here for being with us.

Beginning with Toy Show The Musical, and I do not want to spend too much time on this because there are other issues as well, I pose my questions in this regard to the chair of the board and the board members who were there at that time. Pages 57 to 59, inclusive, of the report show there was nothing in relation to Toy Show The Musical in the minutes from February 2023 up until July 2023. I think it was 3 July 2023, just after the scandals first emerged. At that stage, the show had been a flop and a disaster. A report had been provided to Mr. Coveney and to the board in February. Why was there nothing else in all of that time after that? Was it just brushed under the carpet and did everyone move on?