Peter Fitzpatrick (Louth, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am not being smart. This is going on a long time. This is going on months and months. Every time you think you are finished, something else happens. I will be honest; I do not know anything about the lady at all and I am sure she is very good. If you gave me a copy of your statement this evening, I would give her a job because the reference you gave her was very good but she has been made a scapegoat here. She is gone. There were meetings. There is nothing written down. It is all by phone and everything else. Have you any way of following up any statements that were made over the last number of days and so on? There do not seem to be any records of anything there at the moment. Everything is hearsay or by phone. I think the Minister made a major mistake. As I said, there was no problem going on “Prime Time” because you had your agenda but given the way it was handled, I think the chair was made a scapegoat and thrown under the bus. I do not think what happened was very fair. You told me you had confidence in her and the director general had confidence in her but how come she is gone? What you said last week was you had no confidence in her. Your boss is the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan. Is your boss or is there a different chain of command? If he said in the Dáil that he had no confidence in you, I am sure you would be the first person to leave the party and so on. What happened the chairperson of RTÉ was absolutely and utterly wrong. I am not calling you a liar as I have too much respect for you, but I do believe the statement you made on “Prime Time”, by showing no confidence left the chair no option but to leave. I think it is very unfair on someone being paid €31,000 a year to be chairperson of RTÉ. The director general has confidence in her, you have confidence in her and everyone has confidence in her. I just cannot understand why she was thrown under the bus.