Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Who told people? I was a Senator for 16 years. For the many years in that period that my party was in government, when I am sure there were all sorts of advertising campaigns, I never got a call from a newspaper asking for a quote on an ad the Government was paying for. Here we have many Senators and a councillor running for the Dáil, including their pictures in some instances, although I only found three, so it is not credible that there is no evidence that somebody - I am not saying it was a civil servant - did not ask for Senator X, Councillor Y or Deputy Z to be included in it and told "this is the quote". One does not go to Senator X from county whatever to tell us what proportion of the development plan will be workable. There is not a Minister on the planet who would let a Senator out to say that if there was something to say. Mr. Fraser knows that. He has been around long enough. I was a Senator long enough. A Senator would be told to go back to the back. We are wheeling them out in the Sunday World, The Irish Times-----