Paschal Mooney (Fianna Fail)

I should put that on the record. As he leaves this Chamber, I am sure the Minister, Deputy Hogan, is wondering what happened to result in wonderful bouquets being thrown at him rather than brickbats. I believe he thrives more on the brickbats than he does on the bouquets.

The statistic quoted by Senator Bacik that 86% of Irish people believe the political system is corrupt is a warning light in spite of everything that has been said so nicely here in the Chamber. The reality outside the Chamber is that people still believe despite all this reforming legislation, that something is rotten at the core of the Irish political system. I do not believe that any individual in either House could be termed to be in any way corrupt in the political context or in any other way. I believe that nearly all the people in this House and in the other House are here because they believe they can make a contribution to improving the lot of their fellow citizens. I believe that is their highest motivation. To me politics has always been of the highest calling. I represent the third generation of my family to be involved in politics and we saw it as a vocation and not as being just another job. That has been the driving force for me. I speak for the overwhelming majority of my colleagues and friends in both Houses who feel the same, as does the Minister. The reason I raise this issue goes back to the previous point I made, which is that we need to be ever vigilant about promoting the democratic ideal among our people. We need to be constantly on our guard. Will the Minister agree there is an obligation on the opinion formers in Irish society to put forward an accurate and correct view of what goes on in the Houses rather than a skewed version? Therefore, does the Minister think the Government needs to nudge the electronic and printed media? We have the largest radio listening audience in western Europe and perhaps in the world. Almost 90% of people tune in to the radio every day. We also have an extraordinary appetite for news and current affairs programmes, as is proved whenever one looks at the top ten popular programmes on television across all channels. It may not seem to be relevant, but it is very relevant that we are all collectively involved, and I include the fourth estate which cannot stand aside, in ensuring democracy thrives in the country and people turn away to the point where, come the next SIPO report less than 86% believes the political establishment is in any way corrupt and that this figure eventually reduces to 0%. This is why I made my earlier point and perhaps the Minister has a view on it.