Mr. Noel Curran:

I thank committee Chairman and members for inviting us today to discuss the findings and recommendations of the review into "The Frontline" presidential debate programme that was broadcast on 24 October last year. I thought it would useful to the committee for the authors of that review, Mr. Rob Morrison, former head of news and current affairs at UTV and Mr. Steve Carson, director of programmes in RTE, to also attend this morning to answer, along with us, any questions the committee may have regarding their review and report. Before coming to the committee's questions, however, I want to give it a clear sense of how RTE has reacted to the serious mistakes and misjudgments made in this programme and what actions we have taken.

In March, responding to the decision by the BAI to uphold complaints taken by Mr. Seán Gallagher and others against RTE arising from "The Frontline" presidential election debate programme, I expressed RTE's deep regret at the failures identified by the BAI and apologised on behalf of RTE to Mr. Gallagher, both on television and radio, as well as in a written statement. In addition, it was then, on foot of the BAI's decision and concerns expressed elsewhere, that we commissioned a full review of the programme.

The review team was selected carefully to provide the appropriate mix of external independence on the one hand and knowledge of RTE's practices and procedures on the other. Both Mr. Morrison and Mr. Carson are very experienced and while it makes for difficult reading for me and for everyone in RTE, I am very grateful for the diligence and thoroughness by which they carried out this review. The review was completed and presented to our board in June. It was shared with the BAI, as agreed, for its consideration in July. There were then a number of exchanges and queries over the coming months, and it was published two weeks ago. It is the first time in RTE history that such an editorial report, involving an external independent author, has been commissioned and published. On publication of the report, Mr. Kevin Bakhurst, our new managing director of news and current affairs, apologised again to Mr. Gallagher, all the other candidates and the audience for the mistakes that occurred in the programme.

What happened in this programme, coming so soon after what happened in the "Mission to Prey" programme, has had a profound impact on RTE. Over many years, RTE has earned and retained the trust of its audiences through great programming and an adherence to very high editorial standards. Nowhere has this been more so than in news and current affairs. The very serious editorial failures made in these two current affairs programmes have rightly caused RTE to review and interrogate all of its editorial policy, practices and values. These errors and failures have presented many challenges to many people in recent months, not least to those who were directly affected by them, but they have also caused concern and anger, both within RTE and among its audience, the public, whose trust in the organisation we value above all else.

RTE must always be open and honest when it get things wrong. In any given week our editors, programme makers and journalists make thousands of decisions which influence public debate and discussion. We will make mistakes. To expect that we will always get these judgments completely right is to pretend that these judgments are easy and obvious, and to ignore the possibility of human error. What is critical, though, is that we learn what we can from those mistakes and make whatever changes are necessary. This is part of being accountable and is essential to public trust and public support.

The critical first part of that is to understand what went wrong. That is what the review into this programme was about and what it did in meticulous detail. It addresses all the critical issues - the format of the programme, the audience selection, the framing of questions and the editorial management of the programme. It benchmarked the approach taken in this programme to the approaches taken by other broadcasters of similar programmes. Finally, having clearly identified the shortcomings in the programme, it made very clear recommendations for RTE as to how best to conduct future debate programmes of this kind so that the mistakes are not repeated. We have implemented all those recommendations already.

It is worth outlining all the changes that we have implemented in RTE in recent months in response to what happened in these two programmes. RTE has completely re-structured the editorial management of RTE television current affairs; over the past few months, RTÉ has made a number of significant new appointments to its news and current affairs division and there are more new appointments to follow; RTÉ has completely rewritten its journalism guidelines for all editorial staff; new social media guidelines are now part of the new journalism guidelines; all editorial staff from across the organisation have attended training sessions on the new guidelines; RTÉ has established a new editorial standards board, the purpose of which is to help maintain and monitor content standards through regular review of programmes and regular consultation with editors and programme makers; RTÉ has put in place a new process for dealing with significant editorial complaints; and in the new year, we are putting in place a new system to better track and monitor the range and diversity of on-air contributors and panellists on all of our radio and television programmes. Notwithstanding, and not underestimating for a second, the very significant criticisms that the BAI made in its statement of 22 November, it is important to note the BAI stated that its compliance committee:

is satisfied that RTÉ has taken significant steps to address the issues that have arisen from the production of this programme. Furthermore, the broadcaster has publicly committed to implementing these changes. While the efficacy of the changes will only become apparent over time, it is the Compliance Committee's view that the broadcaster has seriously engaged in making the changes necessary to prevent a reoccurrence of the mistakes evident in key aspects of the production... .

All of the changes we have made are just steps in the right direction but I would hope that the range of measures we have introduced clearly shows RTE's determination to learn from its mistakes and to make its journalism stronger, fairer and more transparent.

It is also important for the committee to be aware that all of these changes to our journalism have been implemented through a period of enormous change for the organisation as a whole. At the beginning of last year, RTE was forecasting a deficit of €30 million. Having taken a number of difficult decisions, including reducing staff numbers by 20%, we are now on target to regain financial stability next year. In the past 12 months, we also successfully launched SAORVIEW, on time and on budget, allowing the Exchequer to net hundreds of millions of euro from spectrum sell off. We have restructured our digital offerings, re-focussed our commercial enterprises and tackled a number of thorny issues, including that of fees paid to presenters with their co-operation.

Early next year we will publish a comprehensive strategy document for the organisation that will set out a very different future for RTE, while also looking critically at everything we now do and how we could do it better. Most important, all of these changes have happened while we have maintained the quality and breadth of our services to the public from the Olympics and European Championships to the drama "Love/Hate", but in the end, everything comes back to the audience and the trust they have in us. All this positive change should not deflect us from the mistakes we have made and how we can learn from them. I know the high standards that are rightly expected of us. I believe that the majority of RTE output meets those standards. I also know that public trust is essential for any media organisation, but especially for RTE as a public service broadcaster.

RTE produces more than 40 hours of current affairs programming across our radio and television services each week. It is at the heart of our output. It is our daily connection with the lives of our audience and public life in this country. I am fully aware that the significant changes we have made to strengthen our journalism will mean little unless they are embraced by all managerial and editorial staff and acted upon in the thousands of editorial decisions we make every day. They will only work if programme makers from the most junior to the highest level clearly understand and accept their responsibility and their role in rebuilding RTE's reputation for very high quality journalism. Most of all though, it is through great programming that we will rebuild trust with our audiences because not alone do our audiences expect us to be accurate and fair, they also expect that we will not lose our nerve and that we continue to challenge, to probe and to ask the difficult questions in the public interest. I thank the Chairman.