A chara, – Your editorial ("An abuse of Dáil privilege", April 16th) calling for my "punishment" and exclusion from the Dáil is most revealing.
It reveals an absolute and remarkable disregard for the very serious allegations contained in a dossier produced by authorised officers – appointed by a previous government.
Your abusive and malicious depiction of me, my actions and motivations echoes the near-hysterical reaction of the political establishment to my exercise of Dáil privilege in December last.
Your outrage that I do not conform to the “common set” of political “values” “established over decades” is most bizarre.
These are the values that brought us cronyism, tribunals of inquiry and economic crash.
So much for the “paper of record” and political reform.
I exercised my constitutional privilege in good faith and in the public interest.
It is telling that your editorial echoes the Thatcherite terminology of "oxygen of publicity" that was used against Sinn Féin in the past. Not a sentiment that I thought would be found in The Irish Times of 2015. – Is mise,
MARY LOU
McDONALD, TD
Leinster House,
Dublin 2.