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

Therein lies the problem. I would argue that therein lies the crux of the ambition that should be employed by RTÉ right now in trying to restore the trust of the Irish public in its board's oversight of how RTÉ operates. That is critically important. Yesterday - I know Mr. Bakhurst might argue it is inconsequential, but the optics of it are horrific - an advertisement was placed to hire a photographer and pay him or her €80,000 a year to sit on the set of Fair City and take a few photographs every day. When Mr. Bakhurst was asked about this earlier, he was not even aware of it. He was not aware who had made that decision, or why the figure of €80,000 a year, which is €240,000 over three years, had been applied. That might seem inconsequential in an organisation that spends millions of euro every year, but in terms of the optics of that to the general public, not knowing details such as who made that decision is just horrific.