Claim RTÉ is trying ‘to shoot the messenger’

A publication has claimed RTÉ is “trying to shoot the messenger” after the state broadcaster denied a report it told two senior ministers what questions would be raised before a supposedly transparent post-budget phone-in show.

The digital-only Irish edition of The Times of London reported last night that it would ask RTÉ to “reconsider” its statement after the station said that the revelation Finance Minister Michael Noonan and Public Expenditure and Reform Minister Brendan Howlin were given questions in advance after pressure from Government advisers is “factually incorrect”.

On Wednesday morning, 24 hours after the widely-leaked details of budget 2016 were officially announced, Mr Noonan and Mr Howlin attended the traditional post-budget phone-in programme on RTÉ’s Today With Sean O’Rourke. The show is set up to allow the public to put their questions directly to the coalition’s two most senior finance ministers, with issues such as homelessness, funds for the elderly, and rent all raised.