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.

Nicolas Sarkozy entered the Elysee Palace in 2007, boasting hyperactive energy and a vision to transform France, but lost office after just one term and the ex-president is now set to go to prison in a spectacular downfall.

Embroiled in legal problems since losing the 2012 election, Sarkozy, 70, had already been convicted in two separate cases but managed to avoid going to jail.

But after a judge sentenced him to five years for criminal conspiracy over a scheme to find funding from Libya’s then-leader Muammar Gadaffi for his 2007 campaign, Sarkozy appeared to acknowledge that this time, he will go behind bars.

Prosecutors have one month to inform Sarkozy when he must report to jail, a measure that will remain in force, despite his promised appeal.

“I will assume my responsibilities, I will comply with court summonses, and if they absolutely want me to sleep in prison, I will sleep in prison but with my head held high,” he told reporters after the verdict.

“I am innocent. This injustice is a scandal. I will not accuse myself of something I did not do,” he added, declaring that hatred towards him “definitely has no limits”.

The drama and defiance were typical of Sarkozy, who is still seen by some supporters on the right as a dynamic saviour of his country but by detractors as a vulgar populist mired in corruption.

‘Won’t hear about me anymore’

Born on 28 January 1955, the football fanatic and cycling enthusiast is an atypical French politician.

The son of a Hungarian immigrant father, Sarkozy has a law degree but unlike most of his peers did not attend the exclusive Ecole Nationale d’Administration, the well-worn production line for future French leaders.

After winning the presidency at the age of 52, he was initially seen as injecting a much-needed dose of dynamism, making a splash on the international scene and wooing the corporate world. He took a hard line on immigration, security and national identity.

But Sarkozy’s presidency was overshadowed by the 2008 financial crisis, and he left the Elysee with the lowest popularity ratings of any postwar French leader up to then.

Few in France have forgotten his visit to the 2008 agriculture show in Paris, when he said “Get lost, dumbass” to a man who refused to shake his hand.

Sarkozy failed to win a second mandate in 2012 in a run-off against Socialist Francois Hollande, a bruising defeat over which he remains embittered more than a decade on.

The 2012 defeat made Sarkozy the first president since Valery Giscard d’Estaing (1974-1981) to be denied a second term, prompting him to famously promise: “You won’t hear about me anymore.”

That prediction turned out to be anything but true, given his marriage to superstar musician and model Carla Bruni and a return to frontline politics.

But the latter ended when he failed to win his party’s nomination for another crack at the presidency in 2017.

The series of legal woes left Sarkozy a behind-the-scenes political player, far from the limelight in which he once basked, although he has retained influence on the right and is known to meet President Emmanuel Macron.

But Sarkozy is tainted by a number of unwanted firsts: while his predecessor and mentor Jacques Chirac was also convicted of graft, Sarkozy was the first postwar French former head of state to be convicted twice and the first to be formally given jail terms.

Already stripped of the Legion of Honour, France’s highest distinction, he will now be the first French head of state to go to jail since Philippe Petain, France’s nominal leader during the Nazi occupation.

Read More: Sarkozy given five-year sentence over Libyan dealings

The chief executive of the Ryanair Group has renewed his call on the Government to abolish the passenger cap at Dublin Airport, which he wants scrapped before the end of the year.

Michael O’Leary accused the Government of “blatant inaction” and doing “nothing” to address the 32 million passenger limit, despite a pledge in the Programme for Government.

Earlier this month, the Transport Minister Darragh O’Brien said he will be bringing legislative options to Cabinet on lifting the cap.

But the Ryanair boss has criticised the move said any such legislation would not be passed until next year, which is too late.

“They have a 20-seat majority. Pass the legislation to scrap the cap before the end of December,” he stated.

Michael O’Leary also said while he does not know the detail of what is going on between daa chief executive Kenny Jacobs and the daa board, he said: “If it’s costing €1.2m to get him out of the position, frankly, they should keep him and get rid of the board.”

“You could get rid of the board for less than €100,000,” the Ryanair boss said.

“I think he’s been perfectly adequate as chief executive of daa. We do have major problems with the daa and their continued plan to build a tunnel under the airport that nobody needs, but he is as good as anybody else who’s likely to come in and replace him,” he said.

On the issue of drone disruption at European airports, including in Denmark, Michael O’Leary said drone flying over airports should be “shot down” or “electronically disabled.”

He also said the tourism industry is facing “considerable challenges” at the moment and he said a removal of the passenger cap will help in addressing the issues.

Mr O’Leary also urged the Government not to cut the VAT rate for the food-led hospitality sector from 13.% to 9%, which he described as “a scam.”

But he also said labour costs should not be passed onto the sector through an increase in the minimum wage, as recommended by the Low Pay Commission.