SEANAD REPORT:A FIANNA FÁIL member was accused of indulging in gutter politics after he complimented RTÉ for its "efforts to bring balance into the debate on the economy. "

Labhras Ó Murchu said for a long time there had been a view abroad that we had been having a one-sided debate, and very often this was demoralising the people at the very time when they needed to be uplifted and helped to get over the recession.

Yesterday RTÉ had brought on a leading economist with a totally different story to the one they had heard before. “He was even introduced by RTÉ on the basis that in the past the media were being accused for being somewhat less than straightforward in giving a balanced report on the economy.

“This economist had good news on the horizon for Ireland, saying that in the very near future the recession would bottom out and that early next year we would find a situation where growth would come back into the economy again. He had also made the point that we were doing much better in the export area than most other countries were.”

Mr Ó Murchu said he believed we now had “a new realisation” coming into the debate.

Eugene Regan (FG) said there had been an exhibition of gutter politics in the House last week when Senator Terry Leyden attacked George Lee and the objectivity of RTÉ in its economic reporting. Mr Ó Murchu had made the same kind of attack on the national broadcaster in relation to its economic reporting in the last number of months. “ It also constitutes gutter politics even though it is more polite.”

Jerry Buttimer (FG) said: “Don’t blame RTÉ for the recession because they didn’t cause it. George Lee merely reported on the recession.”