Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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60. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on the potential conflict of interest whereby members of the board of the national broadcaster are also major beneficiaries of RTE commissions. [5550/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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My Department has consulted RTÉ on the matter and I am advised that, in compliance with the revised Code of Practice for the Governance of State Bodies 2016, all RTÉ Board members and management are required to declare potential conflicts of interest and that appropriate procedures are in place to monitor and manage such matters. I am further advised by RTÉ that no such conflicts of interest currently exist on the Board. I understand that there were instances, as reported in the RTÉ Annual Report 2015, where RTÉ commissioned programmes from a production company owned or controlled by a Board member and I am advised that in these cases the Board took account of the existence of formal and transparent Commissioning Procedures and Guidelines, which are published on the RTÉ website and are applied consistently for all commissions. In addition, all decisions on individual commissions are the responsibility of executive management, assessed using clear evaluation criteria, with contracts awarded in line with normal commercial terms and conditions in all cases.