Mr. Ryan Tubridy:

Yes. I can explain that if the Senator wishes. We were given approximately 30 minutes' warning from RTÉ that this bomb was about to be let off. We looked at it and said RTÉ could not proceed because it would be putting out all this information, so much of which we could counter and clarify for it. We said the Grant Thornton report is saying Ryan Tubridy did nothing wrong and all of this and we said RTÉ had to include that. They said "No" and "We are releasing the statement". We asked what was the rush. Our first statement, which the Senator referred to, went out saying we cannot not shed any light on it because we could not. Then that night was an all-nighter, as we looked through everything. I said I wanted to apologise to people because I should have called that out there as soon as I had the chance to, and I did. Then there was the media maul. The media are brilliant. They are my colleagues and some of them are my friends, so I am not having a go because they are doing their job and I get that. I am just saying there was a mauling of sorts for three weeks.

That is why we get to today where we have put this together with a view to be transparent.