David Stanton (Cork East, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We could tease it out further and argue that Government policy at a certain level could be equated with criticising the Government. Is there a thin line there that we have to be careful about? The first part of the paragraph contains the phrase “make a public statement or comment concerning a political matter”, and it then goes on to the next part that Mr. King is concerned about. We agree on the first part regarding political matters, which could be explicitly saying to the members of the representative association not to vote for, say, Charlie Flanagan or whomever else, as against criticising health policy, for instance, which is a separate matter. There is a thin line there because you could stray one way or the other very easily.