Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the witnesses for coming here and I welcome their voluntary participation. They have given a tremendous submission. The written submissions which I have read are excellent. The debate is fascinating. It was unnecessary for the Minister to refer the matter to the committee and if I were in his position I probably would not have done so. I made decisions when I was in the Department previously. So be it; we are here.

I welcome everyone but I have great memories in particular of Séamus Dooley, the former editor of the Roscommon Championwho was so fair and impartial. He ran a great newspaper. I am sure he must have been very sad to see Lord Kilclooney, the former John Taylor, and Alpha Newspapers take over the Roscommon Champion. Not only did he take it over, but he closed the newspaper and then he destroyed all the archives. He had no loyalty to the Roscommon Championor to the Republic of Ireland for that matter.

By the way, Mr. Dooley mentioned the interesting times on the Roscommon Championand the interesting colleague from another newspaper, but it was not the editorial policy of the Roscommon Heraldto give a particular person a preference, rather it was an individual journalist who did that.