Seanad Report: Calling for a debate on the role of parliament in a democracy, Mr David Norris (Ind) said he was horrified that SIPTU had pulled out of discussions with the Government on a national pay deal because of what the Tánaiste had said at the party's convention.
"I think that is an undermining of democracy. We need to look at this issue because of the evidence that is coming out from tribunals; for instance, that the proprietor of a newspaper, Mr Tony O'Reilly, objected to certain acts of the government, and subsequently, in the course of an election, the front page of his newspaper said that 'It's payback time'.
"We had RTÉ doing programmes coming up to an election, and we had this thing about hepatitis C that targeted Michael Noonan. There was also a very interesting analytical programme about the splits within Fine Gael and all the rest of it..
"Who runs the country now? It is RTÉ, the unions or the newspapers?"
Mr Brendan Ryan (Labour) said it was not a question of who was running the country. Fianna Fáil was running RTÉ, and when Fianna Fáil said "jump", RTÉ jumped.
The assassination job on the former Fine Gael leader had been the lowest point in RTÉ's history. That kind of thing had never been done to leaders of Fianna Fáil.
Mr Ryan said he agreed with SIPTU that the Tánaiste had gone far beyond what was supposed to be still a matter of negotiation. Transport policy should be debated in the House.
Mr Tom Morrissey (PD) said the two Government parties knew where the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, and the PDs stood on transport. They wanted to introduce competition in bus and air transport.
Noting that the current postal strike had not spread to the parcels area SDS, he said that that was because there was competition in that area. "That's the only reason. They have a monopoly on one centre; they don't have a monopoly on the other centre."
Mr Shane Ross (Ind) said the Tánaiste should be congratulated for taking a stand on Government policy. The House should also take a stand against those outside it who seemed to feel that they could dictate Government policy.
Up to Monday last, 100 prisoners had been transferred into the State to serve their sentences, and 57 had been transferred out of it for the same purpose, the Minister of State for Health and Children, Mr Ivor Callely, told the House.
A total of 260 applications for transfer had been received by the State, and 175 applications had been made for transfer abroad.