Madam, - The involvement of media personnel as paid chairpersons in the Minister for Education's recent consultation exercise (YES) is highly questionable.
How can John Bowman and Joe Duffy be seen to be impartial when dealing with current affairs and political issues in their own programmes when they sometimes work for, and accept generous payments from, a Government Department? Is there not a clear conflict of interest between these two roles?
Just as the independence of the judiciary is a fundamental principle, the independence of journalists from the political system, and their being seen to be independent is, in my opinion, essential for healthy democracy. - Yours, etc.,
KEVIN LEWIS, Marley Rise, Rathfarnham, Dublin 16.