Jim O'Keeffe (Cork South West, Fine Gael)

In trying to justify his €30 million purchase of the Thornton Hall farm, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform treated the Dáil to a typical mixture of bluff, bluster and bravado. The high point of his speech — perhaps I should call it the low point — was his attack on RTE. In many ways this was a typical response of the Government in general and the Progressive Democrats in particular. When inconvenient facts are disclosed, the reaction is to shoot the messenger, which was the reaction of the Minister last night. The Government had the same reaction when Eddie Hobbs's television programme produced some inconvenient facts for the Government. Again it made an attack on RTE.

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