Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

In its search engine tools, Google provides people with a facility to check the copyright of photographs. There are many sites that you can buy the images from. I was rather shocked to find that my own image is copyrighted, not by me, but by the person who took the photograph. I fully understand that.

I wish to raise another sensitive issue concerning the media in general. The august Lower House in Leinster House gets bags of publicity and coverage. However, that is not the case with the more senior, more relaxed Upper House. That said, most of the Senators who are present get plenty of coverage in the media, but there are some very valid and important debates on legislation that take place in the Upper House and they never see the light of day. It strikes me that there is a bias in the media which feeds into the public belief that the Seanad is a waste of space, should not be there, should have been got rid of, that they are all there just sitting down, scratching their bums, doing nothing worthwhile. I would be the last person to say that I have produced anything great in this Seanad but some of my colleagues have been absolutely outstanding in the context of some of the issues they have brought forward. Senator Warfield has made a wonderful case for voting rights for 16-year olds. If I stood up tomorrow morning and said a seagull stole a burger out of my hand as I was walking down Molesworth Street, I would get coverage in the media, yet Senator Warfield, who makes a very important argument for 16-year-olds to vote, gets very little publicity at all. I do not know that it falls into Mr. Feeney's remit to look at the equality of publicity, if one likes, for the two Houses, but it is something that bothers me. I have no complaint myself with the media. I do quite well out of them, but it does bother me that some of my colleagues who are outstanding people in their own right never see the light of day.