Last year’s RTÉ financial scandal ruined any prospect of a standalone Irish Eurovision national selection, according to the country’s Head of Delegation. 

Michael Kealy hoped for RTÉ to be able to organise a national selection without the need to co-operate with The Late Late Show. 

Speaking exclusively to The Euro Trip about the matter, Kealy said: “RTÉ has gone through a pretty rough time over the last six months. 

“Our resources hit a buffer for a lot of self-inflicted reasons from the organisation. That suddenly caused a crunch in our ability to spend money on new endeavours.

“It was a bit disappointing that suddenly the money wasn’t there. I had been hoping that we could look at having a standalone national selection, but once the credit crunch hit us, that really was off the table. 

“There was a fair chance it could’ve happened [this year].” 

RTÉ became embroiled in a scandal in June 2023 when it disclosed previously unknown financial arrangements between itself and the former presenter of The Late Late Show, Ryan Tubridy. 

Along with the admission of the existence of barter accounts and international trips costing more than €100,000, the headline of the scandal was the revelation that RTÉ paid €345,000 more than what had been previously disclosed to Tubridy between 2017 and 2022. 

Dee Forbes, the former Director General of the broadcaster, was asked to resign by the RTÉ board. After initially refusing, she was suspended and eventually resigned days later.

Despite the ramifications of the scandal, Kealy remains positive that a selection show broadcast away from The Late Late Show could be a possibility in 2025. 

“I’m hopeful things may settle down later this year and our finances may be put on a more stable footing and we may hopefully have the money to do something like it next year. Let’s be hopeful.” 

Ireland holds its national selection during a special broadcast of The Late Late Show – hosted now by Patrick Kielty – on January 26, and the reaction to the six songs has been largely positive after their release last week. 

“It reinforces that we seem to be on the right track. It’s a long and winding track but we’re on the right one.” 

As well as a standalone selection show, Kealy planned to involve fans in the selection of Ireland’s Eurovision act more than ever before. 

He thought about adding a fan jury and giving it equal 25% weighting alongside a televote, national jury and international jury, but ultimately ran out of time to implement the change.