Paul Hosford: RTÉ is the star of its own best drama this week — or is it a true crime show?

Agent Noel Kelly and Ryan Tubridy in 2010. On Friday, the Taoiseach brought a dismal week for RTE to a close by saying he cannot rule out the possibility that some payments at RTÉ were 'on the wrong side of the law'.

"Maybe the taxpayer was defrauded."

RTÉ chief financial officer Richard Collins spoke the words and then stopped, perhaps just then grasping the enormity of them, leaving the sentence hanging in Committee Room 3 in the bowels of the LH2000 office building which adjoins Leinster House.