RTÉ has again insisted there was no political interference in the decision to remove a leading cancer specialist from a debate on the health service on the Late Late Showlast Friday night.
The broadcaster said managing director Noel Curran received no contact whatsoever from any political source before asking that a panel containing Prof John Crown be altered.
RTÉ has insisted the move was done in the interest of balance but Prof Crown - a longtime critic of Government health policy - has alleged Government interference.
In a statement this evening, RTÉ insisted the final decision made by the Late Late Showwas also not interfered with in any way by any external person or group.
"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," it said.
Earlier Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he had no knowledge of political pressure being applied to RTÉ in relation to its decision. Mr Ahern also said no phone calls were made to RTÉ requesting Prof Crown be dropped from the panel.
Minister for Health Mary Harney also maintained that the guests who appear on the Late Late Showwas solely a matter for RTÉ. She also said she had no knowledge that Prof Crown was to appear on the programme prior to its broadcast.
Yesterday, however, a spokesman for Ms Harney confirmed he had told the programme team that the proposed panel was unbalanced.
He said that during discussions with the Late Late Showteam on Thursday he had expressed the view that a proposed panel to discuss the health service was "unbalanced". But the spokesman emphasised that no request had been made to remove Prof Crown.
"In the course of discussion with the Late Late ShowI 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 other panellists on the programme were journalists Eamon Dunphy and Mary Raftery and television executive and business guru Gerry Robinson.
In its statement today, RTÉ insisted that there was no contact between the Department of Health or the Health Service Executive or any of their representatives with its director-general's office.
Labour spokeswoman on health Jan O'Sullivan today said the broadcaster's explanation raised serious questions. "We know that the Minister for Health's office was in touch with the stationr egarding the show on Friday," she said.
"We also know that Dr Crown was singled out for nasty personal attack by the Taoiseach in the Dáil last week. And now the public is asked to believe that the decision to drop the most vociferous and articulate medical critic of the Government's cancer care policy had nothing to do with either of these developments."
"It is simply not convincing and RTÉ's standing and credibility with the viewing public will suffer as a result," she said.