The issue, as the Meath man and former journalist sees it, is that Ryan Tubridy had been kept at RTÉ by being paid an exorbitant amount of money to host the Late Late Show and his morning radio show. This was not a notion of which any of the RTÉ representatives wanted to disabuse Mr Cassells.

Mr Tubridy, the absent prince to this Hamlet played out in Dublin 2, is a handy scapegoat in a way. He's been well-paid, he's a child of privilege and a chunk of the population already had an unnamed issue with him that they couldn't quite put their finger on.

But what was laid bare as the committee wore into its fourth hour of sitting was that this is not just about Ryan Tubridy, or Dee Forbes. This issue goes to the heart of RTÉ's culture, its chair Siún Ní Raghallaigh said. Its interim Director General, Adrian Lynch, said there had been a "complete breakdown" of corporate governance in underwriting a commercial agreement which topped-up Ryan Tubridy's salary.

“RTÉ should never underwrite a commercial agreement in relation to a talent,” said Mr Lynch. He would later tell Senator Timmy Dooley that "nobody is saying this was good practice". Two statements that probably shouldn't have to be said by those in charge of a €300 million organisation employing 1,800 people, but good to have on the record.

In truth, this is as much about the deal with Ryan Tubridy as the infrastructure which allowed it to happen. It was what Ms Ní Raghallaigh said was “very much a cultural issue within the organisation”.

“You can see it. This is why we’re here. It’s a culture that’s in here that accepts ‘well, that’s approved by the DG so I’m not going to talk about it’. I think people here would agree now that that’s wrong."

The fact that statement came after the chief financial officer, Richard Collins, said “from a control point of view” he took comfort from the Tubridy deal being signed off by Ms Forbes, did not go unnoticed. 

Neither did the fact that members of the RTÉ delegation seemed unsure on whether Patrick Kielty's deal to take over the Late Late Show was legally binding or that Mr Lynch said he thought "four or five" clients of agent Noel Kelly were on the books at RTÉ. A quick glance at the NK Management roster shows it is at least 15.

Asked about this colossus of Montrose and when he would be back on the airwaves, Mr Lynch said: “At the moment, obviously, for editorial reasons, it’s impossible for Ryan Tubridy to be back on air."

While that might make Ryan Tubridy a little smaller, it doesn't make the issues raised in committee any less gargantuan.