Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

A question then arises as to what accountability there is for such a person when huge standards of accountability are demanded of individual elected politicians. Is it relevant, for example, to the Prime Minister's office that the British Prime Minister's son got merry and was brought home by police because the Prime Minister has made speeches on public order issues? Is it relevant that the son of a newspaper editor who has been writing editorials on the same issue has been taken home by the police? I doubt that most newspaper editors would concede that it is. They would be extremely bitter if rival publications were to trot out the type of stuff politicians must endure.

There was a particular case in the recent past where the circumstances of the death of a nephew of an office holder in this democracy, in a hotel in Spain, was the subject of appalling invasions of the family's privacy and grief. The connection with the politician was exiguous but the detail and the degrading material that was published was revolting. It was done purely on the basis that it was fair game to publish this material because the individual in question was a nephew of a politician. I reject that. If I gave the details in this House of the death of a nephew of a newspaper editor, on the basis that the editor was an opinion former as influential as most Members of these Houses, I would be subject to censure and revilement for doing so.