Mr. Ian Kehoe:

I thank the Senator. I will make just a couple of points and try to keep it brief. We have seen the best of RTÉ but unfortunately we have also seen the worst of RTÉ. As the chair described it, the events have been unseemly and have portrayed RTÉ in a really bad light. Rightly so. The Senator mentioned Emma O’Kelly. I am a journalist by trade. When I look at all the work that the journalists have done in RTÉ to pursue the story vigorously and not turn a blind eye to it, I believe they have shown a level of professionalism of which board members and members of the interim leadership team here can be proud. Everyone is really proud that they have pursued that. Overall, looking at it from a very big-picture point of view, what has happened is that there has been enough blame to go around. The board has to own an element of that blame as well, but the one thing I will say is that when we learned about this in March, when we first got calls that there may be an issue around two €75,000 invoices, we did not back down. We pursued it and kept on pursuing it. We put all of the information into the public domain as quickly and transparently as we possibly could, knowing – we all knew – that it would have significant reputational consequences for the organisation. However, as a board, we felt it was the right thing to do.

My time on the board is coming to an end in the coming weeks. It is at that point that you reflect on where the organisation is. I do hope that, going forward, as the chair said, we can have a real dialogue about what sort of public service broadcaster we want in this country. Once we decide upon that, we can have the conversation about how we fund it. Those conversations need to be had. It is not just a case of RTÉ deciding; it needs stakeholder engagement and buy-in from policymakers, legislators, the Department and, crucially, the public. I do not know whether I have answered the Senator's question.