Mr. Kevin Bakhurst:

Deputy McEntee referred to the presidential debate, about which we spoke on the last occasion we appeared before the committee. A range of safeguards have been put in place to ensure the mistakes made during that programme, in terms of the use of a tweet, do not happen again. As I have stated previously, I am confident they will not. I rest my reputation on saying that they cannot and should not happen again.

Social media in the wider context, particularly the anonymous use of social media, is an issue not only RTE, but for all of us, including politicians. There is not a huge amount that any of us can do about it. Frankly, nor can politicians because Twitter, Facebook and so on are international organisations. Currently people can use those media anonymously to say what they like about people. Much of the debate in this regard-----