Serious project delays meant the licence for the broadcaster's channel management system, which was to be replaced, had to be extended for three years. Details were not included in a report to its parent department.
Minutes of a recent senior management meeting point to “ongoing issues” to replace the two-decade old IT system. Internal records also detail what went wrong with the previously failed project to replace the same software.
The recent revelations that the Arts Council and RTÉ both wrote down millions on large IT projects suggests that the lessons of the past with other failed State-led technology projects have still not been learnt.
Records also reveal the full breakdown of the €3.6m write-down on payments to a host of contractors and details of a final settlement with BearingPoint.
Records released from its parent department show that the media minister Patrick O’Donovan queried why there was no recourse to recover more significant sums after the project ran into problems.
The overrun and impairments from a second IT project were only brought to an Oireachtas committee's attention by RTÉ under direct questioning. While this lost less money than another failed upgrade and was ultimately fixed, the Department of Media had omitted it from public documents and earlier questioning.
A renewed media committee quizzed the broadcaster’s equally refreshed leadership line-up one year on from the Ryan Tubridy-fronted payments controversy, but still ignored the crucial commercial aspect of its model.
The public service broadcaster's website is the most widely read online news source in the country, yet does not fall under Coimisiún na Meán's watch. The Government is now advancing a bill to change this.
The project will now likely come before the newly formed PAC, while the media minister said that the broadcaster had "ample opportunity" to flag the €3.6 million project write-down to the Government.
A multi-million euro project to overhaul RTÉ's finance and HR systems failed to fully deliver. Director general Kevin Bakhurst was brought before the media minister earlier this month to explain.
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