Veteran Irish broadcaster Gay Byrne says he would have made the same Tweetgate balls up if he had been in charge of the Frontline Presidential debate last October.
Coming to the aid of his former rival and successor, he said the fault lay with the production team, and the tweet should have been verified properly before being handed to the presenter.
Byrne, who’s going deaf in one ear, made his comments at the launch of Hearing Action Week yesterday.
He told the Irish Independent: “If I had been Pat, I would have assumed that the piece of paper I had been handed had been checked by somebody. I wouldn’t blame Pat for it, nor does anybody else.
“A mistake was made on the night, in the rush of the moment and with all the adrenaline pumping,” said Gaybo.
The broadcaster also said that RTÉ was going through a very tough period. He said he was totally flummoxed by the Fr Kevin Reynolds case and that: “So much of it is against every principle I was aware of in my 50 years with RTE”.
