She was banned from Kenny Live in case she announced her candidacy but yesterday Dana confirmed the worst-kept European election secret on, confusingly, RTE radio's Today With Pat Kenny.
The former presidential candidate yesterday formally announced her intention to run in the Connacht-Ulster constituency.
As RTE moved to shed light on the affair a source in Kenny Live said the national broadcaster looked "exceptionally silly" after the very public volte face. The confusion arose after RTE's Managing Director of Television, Mr Joe Mulholland, cancelled her planned appearance on the chat show last Saturday, saying it would have been unfair to other candidates. The singer had not declared her candidacy at that stage.
Mr Tony Fahy, secretary of the RTE Steering Group, said: "We were well aware that Dana was strongly interested in running and we felt that allowing her on Kenny Live would represent an unfair advantage." RTE had made a decision not to begin its coverage of the European election until after the May Bank Holiday, he explained, so that "it would not be dragged out over April". "Now that we are in an election situation, she [Dana] is entitled to announce her candidacy on RTE but before that it didn't fall into our editorial structure," he said.
A source in Kenny Live said that it sounded like the station was "going around in circles" in relation to the issue. "Frankly, RTE now looks exceptionally silly after this whole thing," he said.
He confirmed that Dana had been booked to appear on the programme for three weeks before she was pulled. He also said the former Eurovision winner had agreed to do a "light personality interview" that did not cover political issues.
A source on the Today with Pat Kenny Show said that permission had not been sought from the Steering Group in relation to the Dana interview but said at least one member of the group was aware of it. Dana said on the programme yesterday that she would not be issuing a manifesto saying it would be "spurious" for candidates to present personal or new party policies during the campaign.