Peter Cleere (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)

I welcome everyone to the meeting. There are enough people here to fill a hurling team. They have come out in numbers, and fair play for that.

To say it is highly unfortunate to lose €3.6 million suggests it was an accident. This situation did not occur by accident. Whether the buck stops with those involved in the procurement process or an ERA, someone somewhere knew the system was unworkable. Someone must be accountable.

The director general, Mr. Bakhurst, was made aware when the Minister specifically asked in 2025. The audit and risk committee of the RTÉ board knew in April 2023 and the board met later in April 2023, yet nobody thought to feed that information up. The Department is on record this afternoon as saying it was aware of the impairment but not of the detail. The sum of €3.6 million is not pocket money. It is not good enough to be aware of an impairment but not the detail.

RTÉ is going to receive €725 million in the next three years from the Government. I would have thought there would be a little more attention to detail as regards funding.