Mr. Paul Mulligan:

Academic research is valuable and the results of it should be valued. It is difficult when one starts research from the basis that there are elites and they are all in cahoots together - the results of the research are there before one does any factual analysis. Dr. Mercille may have something to say about the major press groups, and I know the committee has spoken to them earlier, because they did benefit more directly from the property market, but RTE did not. RTE had no vested interest in it and there was no contact with developers or auctioneers in any of RTE's commercial activities across that period. The cement that may have been there with other media was not there in the broadcast media, to build that contact one would like to propose. I do not say this just about RTE, I believe it was true of all the broadcast media.