Colm Burke (Cork North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will move on to the issue of the barter account and the audit committee. There are a number of aspects to the barter account. There was the issue where advertising was provided as a result of people going through the account. Surely the management team within RTÉ was aware of the use of the barter account and that once a person was contracted through the account, RTÉ could not claim back anything at any stage. Mr. Bakhurst made the point that the money given to Ryan Tubridy through the barter account is not legally reclaimable. One or two people have clearly been identified in the context of the barter account but there must have been many other people who were also aware of the barter account. From a legal point of view, was the legal department aware of the existence of the barter account? Did it give advice at any stage about the risk to RTÉ and the fact that any moneys paid through the account could not be reclaimed?