MEDIA production company Promedia promised potential clients as early as 2001 that it could provide RTE personnel to carry out mock television interviews with their senior employees.

The company was at the centre of a major storm last month when it emerged that, as part of a contract with the Eastern Regional Health Authority, it had engaged RTE news reader Bryan Dobson to conduct media training with senior health service managers in advance of the government's decision to axe the country's health boards.

Senior RTE management were last week summoned before a Dáil committee to discuss the implications of the revelations that top broadcasters were being paid privately to advise government officials and others on how they should appear and what they should say on screen. The Sunday Tribune has established that over 18 months ago Promedia told the ERHA in a proposal for a separate contract that it would provide an RTE reporter to conduct training interviews with senior public health doctors.