Rónán Mullen (Independent)

We can be thankful that so little media attention is paid to the Seanad or else we would be greatly enlarging the amount of coverage given to the tribunals, something that is so deplored by Deputy John Cregan and others. I support Senator Joe O'Toole's comment on the general need for us to have a discussion about how the tribunals are working. I have long been concerned about the impact of the tribunals on due process. I do not wish to get into the substantive issues being ventilated by the tribunals at the moment but there is a serious problem with the way some people's reputations are being treated.

In that context I would welcome broadly what Deputy John Cregan wrote in his letter about RTE's coverage. I would defend him also in that he did not purport to speak for the committee, even if he slyly got in the fact that he was Chairman of the Joint Committee on Communications, Energy and Natural Resources. His plaudits in favour of RTE at the end of his letter were perhaps a little undeserved when he mentioned a broadcaster with such a strong and well-deserved reputation for balance and political impartiality. Senator Eoghan Harris could probably share anecdotes with us about a time when one left winger vied with another in RTE for the right to dictate the nation's opinions on a range of issues.