Ms Eimear Cusack:

Many people have been unhappy with it and have said they want to take it to a third party. I understand that at a human level. However, it would be absolutely disrespectful to all of those who signed up to it to start unravelling what was a collective agreement in order to address specific concerns from individuals. All of these people have had their own unique sets of circumstances in terms of how they were engaged with RTÉ. Many of them were different. When the process with Eversheds was under way, the Department of Social Protection approached us and said it wanted to carry out an independent investigation.

We began an engagement with them and we provided them with a list of 695 names of people who have been providing services to RTÉ. They have that list of 695, which is the list that went into the public domain. Of that grouping now, 396 are no longer engaged in services for RTÉ. Of that 396, the majority were contributors, which means coming into radio programmes, writing crosswords, giving opinions on various things.