Mr. Steve Carson:

If so, its veracity will be checked. Deputy McGrath has hit the key finding of the report which is that a direct challenging question was not put to Michael D. Higgins who was the second front runner. We say in the report and in our analysis that it is editorially justifiable for the leading candidates to have more than one question. That is reflected in the balance of questions submitted to the production team. There were a lot of questions about Seán Gallagher. There were a lot of questions about Martin McGuinness. There were a significant number of questions about Michael D. Higgins.

The production team on air began the programme believing they would have a question on abortion, which for them would have been a direct challenging question that would have been particularly difficult for Michael D. Higgins to deal with, but it was applicable to all candidates. That questioner did not arrive. They then asked somebody else to ask that question, which we concluded was wrong, who agreed to do so. As the programme began they thought they had the abortion question but half way through the programme that person changed their mind, which they were perfectly entitled to do. They then felt, and we did not accept this, that a question on the Abbeylara amendment legislation would be asked and they felt that was their difficult question for Michael D. Higgins. Looking at it, Mr. Morrison and I did not believe that was a particularly difficult or challenging question. We also noted they did not put it to Michael D. Higgins first. They gave a number of reasons and contexts and in the end we did not accept them. We said that, come what may, there were other questioners in the audience and they could have called on them.

To clarify, there were senior editorial figures closely involved in the production of this programme, but Mr. Rob Morrison and I felt there was not one figure, as Mr. Curran suggested, who was stepping back watching the programme air. Everybody was involved in a variety of production roles and we conclude that is wrong. In every debate that has been held since, and there have been two this year, that has not happened. I hope that answers the question.