Mr. Rob Morrison:

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, BAI, responded to the issuing of the report. In the response, there were two sentences that are roughly the same. The first sentence refers to the fact that the working document gives additional insights into the failings of the programme's production team. I completely agree with that. The second sentence is more mysterious. It says there were much more significant things. When I read it I thought, "What do they mean by that?". It looked as if they were saying something had been left out of the working document, as published. That sounded like an allegation that we had intentionally left something out. As soon as that report hit the stands there was a media frenzy suggesting exactly that. We both got calls from a huge number of journalists asking things such as, "What have you covered up, what have you left out, what have you watered down and what have you omitted?". I had to go on an RTE news programme that night and be interviewed by Tommie Gorman to say I resented the suggestion that we had intentionally left something out, presumably at the behest of RTE. This was how the statement was being interpreted. The following morning, I had to go on "Morning Ireland" at 7.15 a.m. I am sure members of the committee are used to doing that. I am not. One does not get a great night's sleep when one has to be on "Morning Ireland" defending one's reputation.