VINCENT BROWNE HAS released a statement dismissing a newspaper report that TV3 is lining up replacements ahead of his possible retirement from his current affairs programme.

The Sunday Independent reported at the weekend that the broadcaster is eyeing up replacements for the veteran journalist and broadcaster. Newstalk’s Ivan Yates is said to be among the favourites to take over the programme.

Citing sources “close to the Tonight with Vincent Browne team” the story said that it would be “remiss” of the station not to look at alternatives given Browne is now in his 70s.

“Given Browne’s age and health over the past few months, observers say it’s only a matter of time until he bows out,” the story said.

The paper also quoted Eoghan Harris discussing the tough task of replacing Browne.

The outspoken columnist also intriguingly recalled “the mutual loathing and liking” he and Browne had of each other when they briefly shared a house off Leeson Street in the 1960s.

But in a typically sharp statement today, Browne rejected claims he ever had any association with Harris:

I protest at the suggestion in last week’s Sunday Independent (“Ivan Yeats [sic] to replace Vincent Browne on TV3″) that at any stage in my career I had any association with Eoghan Harris – I never had any relations with that man.

Browne goes on to state that far from considering retirement, he intends being around for years to come:

Incidentally, that article also claims that I am about to retire from TV3 in the near future. My contract with TV3 extend [sic] beyond three years, by which time I expect I will negotiate a ten year extension.

So there.

Read: People cannot get over Vincent Browne’s referendum broadcast from The George

Read: With mutters of ‘Jesus Christ’, an exasperated Vincent Browne presided over a bizarre debate last night

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