Sir, Some weeks ago, in the course of a Morning Ireland interview, I unintentionally suggested that your Political Reporter, Deaglan de Breadun, had set out to mislead the public about politicians salaries and expenses in an earlier radio interview. In the heat of the debate, a lapsus linguae on my part resulted in the erroneous inference and I am happy to acknowledge and express regret for the error.
May I also avail of this opportunity to deal briefly with the substantive issue. There is, in my opinion, a great deal of public misunderstanding about the salaries, allowances and conditions of politicians. I believe it would greatly assist an informed debate if those newspapers who treat politics in a serious and thoughtful manner, provided a clear and balanced account of the way in which Irish legislators are resourced, compared and contrasted with other relevant jurisdictions.
I believe any objective analysis of the stock of Irish politics will reveal a huge level of dedication and service to democracy that is poorly resourced and not well rewarded. I, for one, would welcome a healthy and balanced public debate on how to improve that situation. Yours, etc.,
Minister of State and
Government Chief Whip, Government Buildings,
Dublin 2.