Ms Clare Duignan:

Deputy O'Mahony made a particular observation about personal comments that he may have read in media recently were made by RTE personnel. I believe I know the Deputy's reference, which was an extremely inappropriate and sexist comment made about a gentleman who had a particular view on the right to life debate. The person who made that tweet does not work for RTE and is not on a contract as an employee with RTE. The person occasionally makes programmes for RTE and is currently making such a programme. As such, he is not governed by the guidelines we have for our own staff. Nevertheless, we expect anyone working for us not to bring RTE into disrepute, as the comment did. As soon as we were made aware of it we contacted the person in question, who has apologised to us and the person to which he directed the comment. He completely recognises that it was entirely inappropriately. That is the first time I have come across a comment like that being made by anyone with any association with RTE.

It is very difficult for us to monitor what every person who will ever do any form of work as a contractor for us will do but when we contract people, we indicate clearly that they must not act in a way that brings the reputation of RTE into disrepute, as the comment in question did. The person in question has never worked in the news and current affairs division. Although it was an unacceptable comment, I reassure this committee and the public that the person has never been in a position where he could make editorial judgments around balance and fairness.