Seanad report: Calling for a debate on the independence of RTÉ, Jerry Buttimer (FG) welcomed the new-found interest of RTÉ and the Late Late Showin balanced programming. It was a pity that the Late Late Show did not have balance before the last general election, he said.
Geraldine Feeney (FF) said: "Senator Buttimer's party didn't win it." Mr Buttimer: "We heard a great rant from a panel prior to the election which was left go unchecked, as Senator Feeney knows well. We know who here was rewarded for being on the Late Late Showprior to the election".
Ms Feeney said: "Senator Buttimer's party signed the contract, and that's where it fell down."
Mr Buttimer said it was a fact that there had been no balance on the pre-election Late Late Show. They did not "need an Einstein" to tell them that. Supporting a call for a debate on the health service, David Norris (Ind) said they should also discuss The Late Late Showand the question of balance.
If they allowed "this situation to continue, we will allow a kind of censorship by default. If the Government refused to produce spokesmen, then the debate can be seriously vitiated in the alleged interests of balance".
Mr Norris said he was very concerned at the Taoiseach's comments in the Dáil when he had referred to John Crown and the dossier that he had. "Are there dossiers on all of us in public life? I don't like it at all. I don't like the idea of being watched by big Bertie at all. It's not appropriate."
If they wanted talent they should get people like Mr Crown on board to help them, and not subject them to this kind of thing.
If the bus routes at the centre of the industrial dispute were not going to be used by CIÉ they should be offered to other operators, Paschal Donohoe (FG) said. The Government and the Department of Transport should intervene in the dispute more actively than appeared to be the case. The annual subvention that the department paid to CIÉ gave it influence in its operational decisions.
Three things should be happening in all this, added Mr Donohoe. Why were the bus lanes that were vacant not being opened up to permit other buses and cars to use them?
"Secondly, if these particular routes are not going to be used by CIÉ, we should be tendering those routes out to other operators who are going to use them, so that we can ensure that all of the passengers on the northside of Dublin are not being held hostage to the inability of Dublin Bus to make two routes work. Finally, I can think of few issues that more illustrate the need for a strong, powerful Dublin transport authority to be in place, so that they can come in and quickly intervene in situations like this, and get other agencies and bodies to step in to avoid the situation where there are 60,000 people standing at the bus stops waiting for nothing to turn up."