Mr. Kevin Bakhurst:

I heard the Chair raise that this morning as well. First, this has been carefully considered and the Chair will appreciate that RTÉ has taken external legal advice on this over the course of the summer and I have discussed this with Paula Mullooly, who is here. We do want to provide maximum transparency. As seen from the hundreds of documents we provided, we provided the committee with almost everything, bar a couple of documents. This is an important issue, so we have discussed it over the summer.

First, we would also like to hear from Dee Forbes and look forward to her appearing in this committee. If she does not appear here, perhaps she could answer a question in writing to the committee – that is what I suggest. Second, on this document specifically, there is an important issue at play. I am not trying to hide behind legal advice but the Chair will appreciate that as a responsible organisation, if we have taken legal advice about what we can, cannot and should disclose, it would be remiss of us to act against that.

I refer to the principle on this.

I have considered it because, as the committee knows I have said, and I mean it, that I want to provide maximum transparency, except where there are legal constraints. For any organisation in this country to function successfully, it has to be able to take confidential legal advice and have client confidentiality with the legal advice given from a solicitor within the organisation. I know this myself from my previous background at RTÉ when I worked in news and current affairs. We took legal advice on many issues, in particular high-profile investigations when there were other people in the room, not just RTÉ people. My understanding was that did not change the procedure.

RTÉ has always had a position whereby legal advice needs to remain within the organisation and confidential across the piece. It would set a unique precedent if we moved away from that. It is a an important principle for us. I totally understand why the committee is looking for that information. I hope the significant timetable we spent time over the summer setting out for the committee helps to improve understanding, along with the hundreds of extra emails included in that which we provided to the committee. From my point of view, I am afraid this is a really important principle for RTÉ. We have taken our legal advice.