Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I could not agree more with what Senator Brian Hayes has said regarding the media. As Members will be aware, last Wednesday in the House I raised the issue of newspaper intrusion into private lives. The problem has got substantially worse in the meantime. I am conscious that in dealing with this matter we must be very careful. Senator Norris made an impassioned input to the recent debate on libel laws here and everything he has said has proved to be true. Last week I raised the issue of a person associated with a member of the Government, whose private life, in the words of Senator Brian Hayes, was being paraded to the public, with no interest involved.

The worst I have seen in all this concerned a young man of 29, studying in Trinity College, who got a full page to himself in one of the Sunday newspapers, having tried to live and order his life. His only so-called crime — he has never been involved in any criminality — was that his father happens to be Malcolm McArthur. He has lived a life with that cloud hanging over him for 29 years. He and his mother have done the best for their lives. The person who wrote that article is guilty of what must be close to a criminal act. He has upset and overturned a person's life. It cannot be right nor acceptable.

When I spoke on the libel laws here I said that in my view the issue was not just the libel laws, but that in a well-ordered fair society a bipolar approach was needed and that we needed both privacy and information legislation. One is no less important than the other. In supporting what Senator Brian Hayes has requested, I ask that it be more focused on the issue of legislation to protect privacy than simply a press complaints council.

I welcome that responsible journalists also consider that something needs to be done about this matter. We should seize the initiative, have a serious and focused debate, with a recommendation from this House to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to introduce complementary legislation dealing with press complaints, libel legislation, information legislation and, above all, privacy legislation. This is what ordinary people want and demand.