Seanad debates

Wednesday, 9 May 2012

12:30 pm

Photo of Rónán MullenRónán Mullen (Independent)

I commend Senator O'Donnell on what she has just said. I support every word of it.

I would like the Deputy Leader to arrange for the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Rabbitte, to come to this House to discuss the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland report that has been finalised and published in recent days. We debated media standards with the Minister some weeks ago, but there was a shared feeling in this House that the debate was insufficient. It did not provide for the level of scrutiny we would have liked, particularly with regard to the case of Kevin Reynolds. It is important a further discussion would take place soon. Ample time should be provided not just to those leading off for each group but to all Senators who wish to speak. There are times when short contributions and questions are appropriate, but this issue calls on us to reflect more deeply together.

I welcome the decision of the board of RTE to require quarterly monitoring reports to be compiled, setting out how RTE is dealing with the issues that have arisen on foot of the "Prime Time Investigates" documentary. There has been some excellent commentary in recent days. Anna Carragher did us all a particular service by bringing the issue of groupthink to the surface. She suggested the issue arose in the context of this documentary. I came across an interesting quotation in a newspaper about the suggestion that there were mixed views among the production team on the question of whether the doorstepping of Fr. Reynolds, which did not in any way breach the then RTE guidelines, was right. According to the newspaper article, the executive producer of the documentary, Mr. Brian Páircéir, "argued for it on the basis that in the past, priests under scrutiny had tended to 'disappear' before they could be interviewed on camera".

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