Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I am as good as anyone in this House at making comments about the misbehaviour of former Members of the Oireachtas, but there is an infinite gap between these two offences. Let there be no equivocation that what the Taoiseach said yesterday was said on behalf of all of us.

Politicians are often further ahead than people realise. It is time the organs of the media began to realise what has happened. I was astonished when watching the nine o'clock news yesterday to see at the beginning the correct response of the Taoiseach. However, I later discovered RTE interviewing a prominent member of Sinn Féin in Washington. I have a feeling that if Deputy Kenny, Deputy Rabbitte or Deputy Sargent was in Washington and a Government Minister was present, similar attention would not have been paid to their comments. Sinn Féin is an important political party but it is not the most important political party. It has five Members in the Oireachtas. The media must realise that it is not just about Sinn Féin but about the rest of us being satisfied that everyone understands what the rules are for democracy. It is up to the media to realise that it cannot give special prominence to Sinn Féin. I appeal to all branches of the media to take this on board.

I have noticed for some time many radio advertisements encouraging older people to become involved in shared home investment plans and so on. As the advertisements do not indicate that the agencies that offer to buy part of these homes are regulated by the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority, we rang them and it turns out that they are not regulated by anyone. They are not covered by consumer law because there is a solicitor involved. I love the assumption that because a solicitor is involved, nothing will go wrong. These agencies are not regulated by consumer law or the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority. People over the age of 70 are among the groups in society who are vulnerable and exposed and it is time financial regulations were extended to encompass such agencies. I am not suggesting that they are doing anything wrong, but older people deserve that sort of protection rather than letting them be exposed to manipulation. There is no cooling off period or any other guarantees in place and it is an issue which will become much more real as people's assets become much more valuable. It is time we pro-actively protected our old people from possible misrepresentation.