RTÉ splashed out more than €55,000 on taxis and trains ferrying staff and guests to and from four shows during the Covid-19 pandemic.
A Freedom of Information request revealed to our sister title The Star shows the State broadcaster spent €55,325 on taxis and trains across The Late Late Show, Angela Scanlan’s Ask Me Anything, Fair City and Today with Daithi and Maura in 2019 and 2020 as the Covid-19 pandemic gripped the nation, grinding businesses to a halt.
The FOI shows the most money on taxis for Fair City cast and crew in 2021, which totalled €16,878. In 2020, as the RTE One soap came off air for six months, a total of E11,378 was spent on taxis, compared to a massive €36,648 in 2019.
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The Late Late Show – fronted by Ryan Tubridy - spent just E6,887 in 2021 for taxis for staff and guests, compared to €6,145 in 2020 and €17,331 in 2019.
Angela Scanlan’s Ask Me Anything – which aired over eight episodes – spent €2,905 on taxis for its star-studded guests.
The FOI states: “The amounts above include taxi costs for staff which were incurred in adherence with the RTÉ taxi usage policy and non-staff, including programme contributors and guests who are required to be at RTÉ for studio call times.”
Expenditure for rail costs were considerably low. Just €531 was spent for rail fare to Cork to Today with Daithi and Maura in 2021, compared to €796 in 2020 and €1,583 in 2019.
The Late Late Show incurred no rail costs to RTE studios in 2021, but €136 was spent in 2020 and €124 for train tickets in 2019. However, RTE said it could not differentiate between staff and guest costs.
“Due to the system RTÉ uses to record taxi costs it is not possible to get a breakdown between staff and non-staff costs.”
But the figure is considerably low compared to previous years. Pre-pandemic in 2018 and 2019, RTE splurged more than €650,000 on taxis and guests across seven of their shows in two years.
The organisation forked out a staggering €658,063 in total on cabs and “non-staff costs” — with The Ray D’Arcy Show being the most expensive programme, costing €230,484 in total for 59 episodes in 2018 and 2019.
The Ray D’Arcy Show, The Late Late Show, Today with Maura and Daithi and two specials for New Year’s Eve cost the state broadcaster €497,818 in non-staff costs alone before taxi expenses were even added in.
RTE forked out a further €160,245 on cabs for The Late Late Show, The Ray D’Arcy Show, Today with Maura and Daithi, Fair City, the two New Year’s specials and Winning Streak, hosted by Marty Whelan and Sinead Kennedy.
The Late Late Show cost €207,603 — some €22,881 less than The Ray D’Arcy Show despite having more episodes in both years.
Today with Maura and Daithi spent €65,945 in total in 2019 and €64,818 in 2018, while Fair City racked up a taxi bill of €75,994 in the same period.
The New Year’s Eve specials in 2019 and 2018, hosted by former Saturdays band member Una Healy and magician Keith Barry, respectively cost €12,198 in total.
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