The final decision to drop cancer expert Prof John Crown from last Friday's Late Late Showon RTÉ was taken by the programme-makers, on foot of concerns expressed by a senior executive, the station said yesterday.
Responding to suggestions that there had been political interference in the decision, the station's managing director of television, Noel Curran, said it was he who had decided the panel chosen for the programme lacked balance and needed to be changed. In a statement last night, RTÉ Television outlined the events that led to the decision to drop Dr Crown,which has been criticised by the Opposition.
Mr Curran saw the final guest list for the programme on Friday afternoon, which then included Prof Crown, a consultant medical oncologist at St Vincent's hospital in Dublin, former television executive Gerry Robinson, and two journalists, Eamon Dunphy and Mary Raftery.
He was "concerned" by the line-up because he felt "the panel lacked balance and a broad enough range of opinions" and from a television point of view, would not have enough debate, the station said.
Mr Curran told the programme's commissioning editor of his concerns and asked that the programme "change the panel and balance the item", but he did not identify the person who should be dropped.
The executive producer of the Late Late Show, Larry Masterson, argued that the panel should not be changed, but Mr Curran was not persuaded. "He told the team to change the panel, to drop one member and find another voice. He made it clear that it was a Late Late Showdecision as to who they should drop," the RTÉ statement said.
The Late Late Show decided to replace Prof John Crown with Prof Maccon Keane and to keep the other guests. "There was no political interference at all in these decisions," added the statement.
"With regard to the alleged censorship of Prof Crown and his appearance on the Late Late Show, it is simply untrue. In the past week Prof Crown has been on several RTÉ programmes and he was extensively interviewed on both Today with Pat Kenny on 6th November and Saturday View on 10th November.
"It is a matter of particular concern that such a story, completely and utterly without foundation, should become a major focus and may be seen to detract from the original story, which is the health service," the station said.
Mr Curran said yesterday he had been acting on his own initiative and had not been contacted by anybody.
Fine Gael TD Simon Coveney said he would be calling on the Oireachtas Communications Committee to invite Mr Curran in before it to answer questions on the issue. Minister for Health Mary Harney, who declined an invitation to appear on the programme, said yesterday she did not have any influence over RTÉ scheduling programmes "and I think their own statement is very clear in relation to that matter".
However, The Irish Times understands that Ms Harney expressed frustration to an RTÉ executive last week before she appeared on last Monday's Six One News about the number of times Prof Crown, an outspoken critic of her policies, had been on air.