Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Senator Aideen Hayden has raised important matters about housing which I will bring to the attention of the Joint Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis. One of the things that struck me about the evidence yesterday from Ms Geraldine Kennedy, the previous editor of The Irish Times, is that people at the top in society seem to think they have an entitlement to telephone editors all the time to complain about the newspapers. I found that quite surprising. The rest of us, for instance, would not try to influence a judge before a case, an examiner before an education test of people, or - it is not trivial either - the referee before a match on Sunday. It seems there is a stratum of society which feels it is quite normal to influence how issues are covered in newspapers. The issues Senator Hayden has raised about how the housing bubble was presented in the media are most important.

I support the call for a debate on TTIP. I would be positive about it. There is a mention of 5,000 to 10,000 jobs.More of our exports go to the US than to any European country and more investment by the US is made in Ireland than in our European partners. The gainers are pharmaceutical, electronics, agrifood and insurance companies. The losers are beef farmers and accountants, but it seems that the gains will exceed the losses. If the insurance industry can get its act together to gain from TTIP, the accountants could be called upon to pull up their socks. Sometimes, the losing sectors in Ireland are more successful at making noise than those who stand to gain.

I welcome the Taoiseach's visit to Northern Ireland. Yesterday, he met the relatives of the ten people killed in the 1976 Kingsmill massacre. Mr. Alan Black, who was shot 18 times and survived, stated that he felt elated by the meeting as well as the Taoiseach's determination to get to the truth. Today, the Taoiseach is in Ballymurphy, where 11 people were killed in 1971. His interest in meeting the real people of Northern Ireland is to be commended. Those healing endeavours at Kingsmill and Ballymurphy deserve to succeed.