A commercial partnership between the Late Late Toy Show and the fast fashion retailer Penneys will not go ahead this year, RTÉ has confirmed in a statement provided to RTÉ Investigates.
Penneys said the partnership was "paused" because the "Penneys ordering deadline for the Late Late Toy Show pyjamas coincided with the initial conversations with RTÉ Investigates."
The RTÉ statement said that, while the Late Late Toy Show had previously partnered with Penneys, the commercial partnership would "not go ahead this year for a number of reasons."
In previous years, the partnership included the production of Late Late Toy Show-branded pyjamas and socks.
The partnership ran for a decade and included donations by Penneys to the RTÉ Toy Show Appeal. In 2024, the company donated €100,000.
The statement was provided to RTÉ Investigates after its investigation, broadcast on Wednesday night, detailed how Bangladeshi factories that supplied major Irish retailers, including Penneys, were also sourcing cotton from two Chinese suppliers that had taken in Uyghur workers under a state-backed forced labour programme.
WATCH: RTÉ Investigates: Forced Fashion on the RTÉ Player
"There is no suggestion of any link between the [Toy Show] range and the questions raised in the programme," Penneys told RTÉ Investigates.
Penneys said it was "very proud" of the ten years of the partnership, and that it "looked forward to revisiting the partnership next year."
RTÉ Investigates also asked if RTÉ had commercial partnerships with any of the other retailers named in the programme, which included Marks and Spencer, Dunnes Stores, Tesco, and Shein.
It said: "RTÉ has had and continues to have relationships with a wide range of retailers, including those named in the programme."
It also said that RTÉ "conducts due diligence on all commercial partners and keeps all commercial partners under review," and that RTÉ did not have a commercial partnership with Shein.
"Any new information relating to possible work practices or ethical or environmental issues relating to commercial partners will be reviewed by RTÉ," said the statement.
"Where necessary, assurances will be sought by RTÉ, and further action may be considered."
Up to a third of the world's cotton comes from the province of Xinjiang in China, where China has built a system of state repression targeting Muslim minorities, the largest being the Uyghurs.
The United Nations said in 2022 that the abuses committed by China – which include mass arbitrary detention, forced sterilisation, and forced labour – could amount to crimes against humanity.
READ: How forced Uyghur labour could be woven into your wardrobe
The revelations about these abuses led many clothing retailers to vow never to source from the region, but RTÉ Investigates found that systems cited by the retailers as protecting them from Xinjiang cotton were ineffective.
The Labour Party, citing the investigation, called for the passage of its Exploitation and Trafficking Bill, which would "establish a mandatory register for all businesses, compelling them to demonstrate their commitment to eradicating forced labour and exploitation in their supply chains."
The Fianna Fáil MEP Barry Andrews urged the European Union to agree on a €5 levy on the import of low-cost packages from outside the EU.
