Mr. Ian Kehoe:

I will be as quick as I can. In the aftermath of the 2019 strategic review, where it was decided and agreed that all of the top ten presenter earners would take a 15% pay cut, it was specifically asked at board level had each of the top ten taken it, and the answer that came back was “Yes”. I did not ask the question if there were top-ups through a tripartite agreement with a commercial partner, but there was a period of withholding information that I regret. Questions were asked. Sometimes we did not get the answers we required and sometimes the answers we got were simply incorrect.

As a final point, and it is the last time I will be addressing anyone in relation to RTÉ, I think it is really sad that when people look at RTÉ now, they look at this through a prism of flip-flops, Soho House or tripartite agreements. Going forward, I have confidence that under the leadership of the chair and the new DG, hopefully, we can bring it back to what RTÉ is, not just news and current affairs, which we look at, but what it does in terms of trying to promote the regions and tell the national story. We look at what RTÉ did during Covid, with “Home School Hub”, or where it tried to engage with different aspects of society. It is my real hope that, going forward, that is how we will look at RTÉ, not through flip-flops and Soho House.