Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The media are an integral part of public life. The Fourth Estate plays a crucial role in Irish democratic life. At its best, it holds the institutions of the State and others to account in the interests of the people. The media hold up politicians to public scrutiny, while increasing transparency and strengthening democracy. They inform and educate citizens, providing an important platform for citizens to rally around causes. Quality journalism, the underpinner of democracy and the bedrock on which people are informed to make decisions for themselves, is being jeopardised by a significant downturn in revenues for news publishers, caused by several factors which include a decrease in print circulation and the print advertising spend and the increasing share of digital advertising revenues enjoyed by the major digital platforms. It is against this backdrop that the strategic communications unit was created. It was embedded into the heart of the Government's communications in an effort to exploit the situation in which the national media found themselves. One only has to look at the way which it has been used and abused. I take what the Minister for Finance said with a grain of salt. While it may have been the intention, the facts are very different. We saw how the recent storm was utilised by the strategic communications unit. One wonders why the Taoiseach needed to be flanked by an Army officer on one side and a garda on the other at press conferences?

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