In 2003, the Irish government at last appointed an authorized officer to look into Dunnes Stores' records. While the results of that investigation were to remain private, it nonetheless represented a new intrusion for the company's carefully guarded privacy. That same desire for privacy had reportedly led the company to quash a story slated to appear about Dunnes Stores in the "Irish Independent", which allegedly chose not to run the story in order to safeguard the yearly €1.6 million in advertising revenues provided by Dunnes Stores.