Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I assure the Deputy that I have never had, and am unlikely ever to have, any influence over the national broadcaster which would probably not publish something positive about me but will publish something negative. I have very little influence over it. What I would have said the week before a court case would have had no relevance. I did not know that the case was coming on. What was happening in the courts was not high in my priorities the following week when I was trying to form the programme for Government. The director general made it clear that he and his legal team took no account of that whatever. Their decision was made before that, to judge by what he said subsequently.

See this speech in context