Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 25 March 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Context Phase

Mr. Harry Browne:

What a shame it would be if there was never a chance to have lunch with sources.

We talked earlier about the existence or otherwise of ethics codes and their enforcement or otherwise in newspapers. At the same time, we are talking about human beings with relationships which are in some respects ongoing and necessarily have a social component. Again, I do not have to go far beyond this building to ratify that. The full quote from that lunchtime story includes a bit where the journalist said to the broker who claimed they own the business pages, that the hell they did. That was an instinctive pushback from the journalist at this bald assertion by the broker. It is possible to have an antagonistic challenging relationship with someone one must deal with regularly. It is difficult but it is possible.