Any fairminded person would have to agree that certain members of the Opposition have grossly abused their position of privilege in this House in the manner in which they have [908] hurled accusations against people outside the House without any evidence. That is reprehensible and calls into question the limits to which this privilege can be allowed. As Deputy Dermot Ahern said earlier, the matter must be addressed. It is outrageous and it flies in the face of common justice that accusations of criminal behaviour can be made against people who are not in a position to defend themselves. Too often these Deputies when asked to repeat their allegations outside of the House have refused to do so because they know they are without foundation and would not stand up in a court of law.
The main culprits in this area have been The Workers' Party. It is unfortunate that The Workers' Party, who apparently stem from the criminal activities of the Official IRA and who have had certain links with the disgraced communists of eastern Europe--

It is unfortunate that The Workers' Party with this background have been backed up by the Labour Party and Fine Gael. The Workers' Party have thrown numerous accusations against this [909] side of the House, against innocent people as well.

Accountability was one of the major planks of The Workers' Party. Seeing that the Deputy is in here, I want to have a go at him first. The Workers' Party said that our Ministers should be accountable for certain things that went on in semi-State bodies, things over which Ministers had no control. The Workers' Party call themselves accountable. Can they account for the fact that tens of thousands of pounds of counterfeit money was being printed on their own premises? Account for that, when you talk about accountability.

It is unfortunate that the Labour Party and the Fine Gael Party have aided and abetted The Workers' Party. It is even more unfortunate that sections of the media have leapt in to exploit the situation and to again launch an unjustified attack on the greatest of all political parties in the country, giving the impression that every business in this country is rotten. That is the impression that is being created outside of this House.

Deputy Bruton came in here and asked today what this party were doing about the hundreds of millions of pounds that were going out of the country on a daily basis. Who is responsible for that? The Opposition Deputies are, for creating this unfair impression. It is true that the Opposition parties have done untold damage to our international reputation and to our international image.

The Opposition leaders must be proud of recent opinion polls. Some leaders have gained a few points and some parties have gained a few points. The Opposition must be proud of that and of the fact that they continue to gain points at the expense of the country. The Opposition parties are gaining popular percentage points at the expense of the country. They must be proud of themselves.
It is unfortunate that the media have again leapt in to exploit the situation. Last week some of our national newspapers were filled with this type of claptrap. The financial pages stated that damage had been done to investment from abroad by the news from Ireland. Who informed them? Was it the Sunday Tribune, which printed a photograph of the head of Government in the front page and audaciously used words from a Shakespearian play - "Something Rotten". If one looked down the rest of [912] the page there was noting in the article to back up the headline. This is what is going on in this country at the moment. Fianna Fil have had to endure a violently hostile press from the day they were founded but invariably the public have had the good sense to overcome gutter journalism before making their decision.
Within the past number of weeks I have severely criticised several commentators and newspaper editors for the manner in which they behaved during these events. One radio interviewer asked me if I was not being paranoid about the media. That could not be further from the truth. I have been very careful to distinguish between good investigative political journalists and those so-called commentators whom I have described as muckrakers. To call them journalists would be a smear on that noble profession. The high priest of these commentators is a man who failed miserably in his political life, after one term failing to get re-elected. This individual has been afforded massive space on the leader page of the Irish Independent for years now to spew out his obvious hatred for Fianna Fil, and for one person in particular, Deputy Charles Haughey. I quote from his recent piece. It reads as follows:
I shall not believe Mr. Haughey to be politically dead until I see his body buried at midnight at a crossroads, with a stake driven through his heart.
This is one example of impartial, objective journalism. The Irish Independent actually describes that journalist as one of our top commentators. The other top commentator usually takes up the space immediately below him and he is rapidly learning from his master. Added to this type of venomous article is the use of outrageous headlines. Take, for example, the report on the beef tribunal. The eminent chairman of the tribunal used stronger words than those I used. He said they were an absolute disgrace. [913] At least I am not alone in my opinion of that section of the media.

Last night I was rudely [933] interrupted by members of The Workers' Party who claimed, after the Minister for Justice had made certain allegations against them, that the subject in question--

It was claimed that several matters raised by the Minister for Justice and myself were the subject of libel actions against the BBC. In that regard, I now interrupt the part of my contribution on which I was speaking at the conclusion of the evening to point out that this morning's newspaper states: "The BBC says that it has to date received no libel writs from The Workers' Party, in an apparent contradiction of statements made by both the party Leader, Proinsias De Rossa, and Pat Rabbitte in Leinster House" So, there are no libel writs. "The BBC did receive some letters of disquiet from The Workers' Party after the programme of last summer, but no libel action has started to date, and certainly none lodged with the corporation's lawyers". Perhaps if members of The Workers' Party have a chance to do so they might try to clarify that matter for the House this morning. Some of the kind of allegations that they have strewn across have obviously been contradicted by no less a corporation than the BBC.
To continue from where I left off last night, I remind the House that I was saying that I was not paranoid about the media. The Irish Press, within a matter of days was forced to publish unconditional apologies to the Taoiseach, to the Minister for Agriculture and Food and to Commissioner MacSharry. However, readers would have to scrutinise that paper closely to find the apologies since they occupied only a few inches of small print, whereas the original offending material had been printed in banner headlines. It would appear that the principle of affording a similar headline to [934] apologies is something of the past. Distinguished lawyers at the Goodman Tribunal have highlighted the manner in which a string of unsubstantiated allegations, most of them made in this House, were reported as if they were evidence. These newpapers like to boast of themselves that they are opinion makers. Is it any wonder that the public who have been subjected to this type of yellow journalism respond in the way they do to the pollsters? As I have said before, the not too lamented Dr. Goebbels had a theory that the more muck thrown hopefully the more would stick. I am confident that the public will see clearly through this Nazi-type propaganda and will react appropriately when the time comes. It is somewhat farfetched to suggest that one is being paranoid about the kind of media who deliberately set out to destroy elected Members of this House by lies and innuendoes.

