Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The fourth estate is running policy for Fine Gael and the Independent Alliance. Yesterday we had the headline "'Tax grab' on workers follows FG cuts pledge" and today we have "Donohoe in climbdown on loss of tax breaks as Taoiseach accused of 'clobbering workers'". Yesterday we had one headline and today we have another. Who is running the show? It is Independent News and Media and very active journalists. I compliment Senator Nash who highlighted this issue yesterday.

The fourth estate, or the fourth power, refers to the press and news media in explicit capacity of advocacy and implicit ability to frame political issues. What we have is a very astute propaganda unit in the Government, which is supposed to have been done away by the way, and when it views these stories all of sudden the policy mooted at the weekend with the Revenue Commissioners has been dropped until after the next general election to ensure the Taoiseach returns to power with Sinn Féin. That will be the make-up of the next Government the way it is going at the moment.