Mr. Adam Larragy:

From the Department’s policy perspective, one reason for retaining the power of the RTÉ board to appoint a private auditor is that some of RTÉ’s subsidiaries are already audited and will continue to have to be audited by a private sector auditor under the Companies Act. One is 2RN, which operates the transmission system. Such bodies are established as companies under the Companies Act. There is precedent for the dual audit of commercial semi-State organisations. Uisce Éireann had the Comptroller and Auditor General assigned to it. I believe the relevant legislation was in 2003, but Uisce Éireann retained, because of its commercial semi-State nature, a dual audit.