Mr. Steve Carson:

The committee should bear in mind that we examined people's private communications with each other, their notebooks, their e-mails and we spoke to them at great length and, on some occasions, twice. We looked for a personal animus and political beliefs for or against any candidate. We did not find evidence of it and it was incumbent on us to put it on the record in the report. We share many of the criticisms of Deputy Colreavy that this was a minefield. It seemed that much more attention should have been paid to the mechanics of the programme at management level in current affairs. While it was editorially justified that the leading candidates should have more questions than others, it is extraordinary that a direct challenge question to Michael D. Higgins was not broadcast. We drilled into that and we see that it was not that they were not looking for it. They had questions but there was an issue with someone who did not arrive. There was a knock-on issue with someone who was asked to put the question. We thought it was wrong that they decided, halfway through the programme, not to do it. Even allowing for that, it does not matter and they should have taken steps to ensure it was done. The threshold for political bias is high we did not see evidence of it. We had to put that on the record.