Minister for Health Mary Harney and RTÉ have rejected claims that political pressure was applied to have Prof John Crown removed from the Late Late Showon Friday night but a spokesman for the Minister confirmed he had told the programme team that the proposed panel was unbalanced.
The spokesman for the Minister said that during discussions with the Late Late Show team on Thursday he had expressed the view that a proposed panel to discuss the health service was "unbalanced" but he emphasised that no request had been made to remove Prof Crown.
"In the course of discussion with the Late Late Show I did make the point that the panel was unbalanced. I made it in the normal way that happens in such discussions," said Ms Harney's spokesman. "I made no request that anybody should be removed from the panel and it was news to me when it transpired on Friday night that Prof Crown was not going on the programme," he said.
The spokesman also emphasised that the final contacts between him and programme-makers early on Friday evening had been instigated by the programme and not by him.
"The Late Late Show spoke to me on Tuesday requesting that the Minister appear on the programme. I told them she had an appointment in Cork on Friday and was unlikely to be available. I confirmed on Thursday that that was the case.
"On Friday evening when I was in Cork I had a call from the Late Late with a request that a Minister of State or another Government Minister appear on the panel but that was not possible at such a late stage," he said.
RTÉ also denied the change in the panel had been made as a result of political pressure and said it was due to an editorial decision. "Television management had concerns about the proposed composition of the panel on Friday night's Late Late Show discussion on health issues. The Late Late Show production team were asked to bring a wider range of voices to the panel," RTÉ said in a statement.
"The final decision on the composition of the panel was made jointly by television management and the Late Late Show production team. These kind of internal editorial discussions happen on a regular basis. RTÉ reiterates that there were no outside influences involved in the decision, it was purely an internal decision," said the statement.
In a personal statement on behalf of the director general of RTÉ, Cathal Goan, it was emphatically denied that the panel change was made after a phone call to him by Ms Harney.
"This story is completely and utterly without foundation. There was no phone call or contact between the offices of the Minister for Health and the director general on Friday regarding the composition of the panel discussing health issues on the Late Late Show.
"Furthermore the director general did not know that it was proposed to have Prof Crown on the panel. The decision to reconfigure the panel was made by the television division without any external influence," said the statement.
But Opposition parties continued to press for a more detailed explanation for the decision to drop Prof Crown.
Labour Party leader Eamon Gilmore said Prof Crown, a consultant medical oncologist at St Vincent's hospital in Dublin, had been an outspoken and honest critic of Government health policies and it would appear that his removal was due directly to a fear of what he might say.
"This is censorship and a denial of free speech. Prof Crown's removal is especially sinister in the light of the menacing comments made by the Taoiseach last Wednesday in response to my questions to him," said Mr Gilmore.
