Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the motion. I have been a practicing politician since 2004, approximately 11 years, seven of which I spent in local government and the remainder here in Dáil Éireann. One of the starkest differences I noticed when I moved from local to national Government is how the agenda is set. It often disappoints me. Local government genuinely reflects the wishes and issues of the people on the ground, and the motions that are put down in county halls for the meetings every Monday come from the grassroots and are led by the people. It is real democracy in motion. However, since coming to the Dáil, I border on resenting the way the media continuously sets the agenda. I find it very difficult to understand. If anything is eroding our reputation, democracy and how the House works, it is the reactive pandering to the agenda set by the media. "Morning Ireland" has admitted it is "setting the agenda" for the day, and the House goes off on a tangent following whatever the media is talking about.

When I saw the motion, the first thing that struck me was that it was very curious timing, the day after the programme on RTE. The programme, which I did not see, was the most hyped, sensationalised and advertised programme. I have not seen RTE promote anything with the gusto with which it promoted the programme last week, and here we are in the House reacting to the agenda led by the editors in Montrose. Maybe we should hand over the Order of Business to the editors in Montrose and let them dictate the pace and what we discuss here.

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