Clare Daly (Dublin North, Socialist Party) | Oireachtas source

As taxpayers, citizens and public representatives, it is important we put on record how appalled we are by what RTE has done in this case. I believe this will be a defining moment and the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources will be judged on how he deals with this and what happens next.

At the core of this are issues of freedom of expression and basic human rights. As somebody who has had some horrible and inaccurate things said about her in the media, I know how difficult it is to get them corrected. That makes it doubly unbelievable how quickly RTE handed over money in this case. Nothing inaccurate was said. That is the critical point. The people and the organisations that benefited from this pay-out have clearly argued that LGBT people should be treated differently. That is nothing else other than homophobia. To call it anything else is, in my opinion, an abuse of language.

Brendan O’Connor in the apology offered said it is an important part of democratic debate that people should be entitled to hold dissenting views on controversial subjects. That means, however, one also has to have the right to express a different opinion on that dissenting view and call it by its proper name. As Deputy Buttimer said, if someone is known to be a racist, has expressed racist views, and we call them a racist, are we to then to apologise to them for calling them by the right name?

This issue has enormous consequences for society. Parliament must send a strong signal that we will not tolerate homophobia. Unless this issue is addressed, the only conclusion that people will draw is that if one has big pockets, then one can use them to stifle debate and control opinion. Irish people do not want to live in such a society.

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