Ms Moya Doherty:

My colleague behind me, and because he is behind me I cannot see him, went to the dictionary and looked up the definition of a "barter fund". That struck me as quite an horrific definition. From my perspective, and that of my colleagues Dr. P.J Matthews, Anne O'Leary and Robert Shortt who were on the board with me, none of us knew of the existence of this barter fund. It was outside of the financial department and, therefore, not reported to us as a board during our monthly meetings and did not exist in the monthly management accounts. For me, as chair, and for my colleagues on the board, that is staggering and absolutely shocking. We did not even pick up in the corridors of RTÉ the existence of the barter fund. I appreciate, from my education about the barter fund of late, that it is something that is common in commercial. How and ever, it raises the bigger issue now about the tension between commercial and public service. That is a debate-----