Mr. Adrian Lynch:

As interim deputy director general of RTÉ I concede that as an executive we failed in our collective responsibility around the events leading to the misstatement of payments to Ryan Tubridy. I wish to state again our deep regret for what has emerged in recent days. For this serious breach of trust with the public, we apologise. It is a fact that the application of Government procedures at an executive board level allowed for the partial and incomplete sharing of information so that individual members of the executive either did not have access to information or had information withheld from them. It is true that the executive board failed in its collective responsibility to act as a collective and failed to ensure good governance in this matter. Collectively, owing to the silent style of the procedures at the executive and an over-reliance on the prerogative asserted by the director general, we did not receive a comprehensive evaluation of Ryan Tubridy’s contract in full, including the way in which the payments were to be treated. We acknowledge and accept this failure, specifically by those members of the executive who were aware of the contract. I have spoken to Kevin Bakhurst last night and I understand from him that his first task when he begins on 10 July will be a complete reconstitution of the executive board of RTÉ.