RTÉ says question agreed before show

AUDIENCE MEMBER:A QUESTION written for an audience member in advance of the Frontlinepresidential debate last October was agreed with him in advance and reflected the "substance and language" he used in conversations with a researcher, RTÉ has said.

Responding to a call from former presidential candidate Seán Gallagher for a public inquiry into the programme following a claim the question was imposed on the audience member, the State broadcaster said it was not a matter for it “to decide or influence” whether such an inquiry should be held.

“RTÉ will continue to be subject to full statutory regulation in addition to its own internal governance and management,” it said.

Pat McGuirk (43), Newbliss, Co Monaghan, has claimed a “hostile” question had been prepared for him by programme researchers, which he was to ask Mr Gallagher live on air.

In a statement yesterday, RTÉ said Mr McGuirk told a researcher that Mr Gallagher’s job creation record was open to question. He had said he was “sick of hearing” of Mr Gallagher’s claims, that he felt he was a “cute hoor” and playing “a sneaky game”. He had also used a defamatory term about Mr Gallagher.

On the day of the broadcast, a question was drafted using “the substance and language” offered by Mr McGuirk on the job creation topic, the RTÉ statement said.

Mr McGuirk was then phoned and agreed the question as drafted was accurate and agreeable to him, though on reflection he decided not to use the phrase “cute hoor”.

On arrival at RTÉ, he was given a printed text of the question and was asked to check it was agreeable and to practise delivering it, which he did, RTÉ said.

The staff researcher who dealt with Mr McGuirk was “quite clear” she did not “put words in Mr McGuirk’s mouth”.

RTÉ said research preparation work with audience members and the selection of questions was “a normal and regular part of production” and the adaptation or sub-editing of submitted questions was a part of programme preparation for “coherence, duration and potential libel”. Providing a typed copy of a question was “to guard against nerves”, the broadcaster said.

Speaking on RTÉ Radio One yesterday, acting director of current affairs Steve Carson said Mr McGuirk had subsequently thanked the programme.

“He wrote to the researcher: ‘Thanks so much for letting me on the show, I really have to say that you are a lady, you’re very good at your job. Pat Kenny is very lucky to have you at his right hand,’” Mr Carson said.

“It is a very effusive and upbeat so if . . . he was unhappy, it doesn’t tally with that.”

He added RTÉ had accepted the findings of the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, which said it was unfair to Mr Gallagher when it put the contents of a bogus tweet to him on air.

RTÉ has instituted a full editorial review of standards and practices and was finalising a protocol on uses of social media following the findings, he said.