Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank each and every one of the witnesses for joining us in what Ms Ní Raghallaigh described as a special sitting reflective of the gravity of the situation in which RTÉ finds itself right now. We are here to work as best we can in partnership with them in restoring trust in RTÉ and ensuring the future of our public service broadcaster. As it has rightly been pointed out, we have a role to play, as legislators, in ensuring the method of collection of our licence fee is reflective of how people consume media in the 21st century and of the very valuable service RTÉ provides. That is our role and function.

My Fine Gael colleagues and I made a lengthy submission to the Future of Media Commission suggesting that there should be deep reform of the licence fee collection mechanism. That proposal, which was presented by the commission to the Government, did not get through Government scrutiny. I am enthused by the recent statement by the Taoiseach committing again to look at this, legislate for an alternative method of collection and have that method in place by 2025.

If legislators are to go to the Irish public with renewed determination to support the future of RTÉ, it is crucial that we have their support and trust. That is where we are falling down. RTÉ is falling down in restoring that public trust. Despite numerous opportunities being presented to the former board and, I would argue, the current board to some extent, we are still not there. I commend Mr. Bakhurst in particular on all of his public outings in the past eight weeks. He has done his utmost in trying to restore that public trust. He has been open and transparent and appears exceptionally committed to the future of RTÉ. I hope he gets the support of the board and his executive team colleagues in doing exactly that.

Let us dwell for a moment on where we are at. I pointed out in the most recent committee meeting at which the board appeared that there is a massive failure in the reporting mechanisms and structures in place within RTÉ right now to ensure the debacle we have just witnessed can never happen again. I would like to be able to say to the Irish public that I am now confident those reporting structures have changed and that we are not in a situation where the former chair of the board, Moya Doherty, could say it was staggering that neither she nor her board colleagues were even aware of the existence of a barter account.

In the context of ensuring that RTÉ is putting in place or has already put in place better reporting mechanisms, I will ask Ms Ní Raghallaigh a question. On 28 June, she stated before this committee in regard to the understatement of Ryan Tubridy's earnings from 2017 to 2019: "Why this figure was understated, and by whom, is a question we as a board are also very anxious to know the answer to." The Grant Thornton in-depth review is now complete and one would hope that, as a result, we are at least a bit further on in having confidence that the board now has those necessary reporting mechanisms in place. At the end of that process, do we now know the answers to that very simple question? It is one of many questions that have seriously dented public confidence in RTÉ and its board, structures and culture. Do we know why that figure was under-reported and by whom?