Marc MacSharry (Fianna Fail)

We all want free speech. When people are tweeting, texting or online, for example, on boards.ie and Politics.ie. In my view that does not amount to free speech, but legalised subversion of the State. It is fundamentally wrong. What we need is someone or medium which reports the facts. We praise the people of Ireland for being among the most educated in the world. They are prepared and able to make their own decisions based on the facts, if presented, but not as presented by the editorial staff whether in RTE or in other news media.

I intend to raise the following issue privately with the Leader, but everybody should be aware, that there is a major news agency under the charge of quite a few regional newspapers which has instructed staff not to print any news releases from Members of Seanad Éireann. That must be addressed.