What I've been saying

NUI Senator Rónán Mullen today welcomed the sentencing by the Cardiff Crown Court of three Irish citizens who ran a prostitution and sex-trafficking ring located in the Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

Different philosophical and religious traditions have different things to say on the matter. I find attractive what is in the most recent catechism of the Catholic Church, for example. It stresses the importance of treating animals well but also states we should not lavish on them excessive care which should properly be reserved for human beings. There is something obscene, for example, about the amount of money spent on pampering animals in other parts of the world and lavishing them with luxuries, while human beings suffer. That displays a lack of proportion. However, there is no lack of proportion about what is contained in this legislation. Dogs were and are valued in rural Ireland. As I said, they have often been considered to be extra members of the family and some would say they have considered themselves as such.

According to today’s The Irish Times, 10% of older people in nursing home care are there for social reasons while 30% of long-stay residents have low to medium dependency. It really should stop the traffic that there is no independent scrutiny of residential facilities for older and younger persons with disabilities. It should also stop the traffic that where complaints are made, there is no transparency in how they are handled. We read of cases where investigations took place but we do not know the outcomes of those investigations.

Ireland is now facing one of the most challenging periods in its history. The global credit crunch, the collapse of the property bubble, the near collapse of our own banks, and the dramatic fall in the value of the currencies of our trading partners has created a perfect economic storm which has tested the competence of Government and the confidence of business.

Much of the other criticism that applies to the Seanad also applies to the Dáil. We have a weak parliamentary system. There is huge need for reform in order that legislators actually get to be legislators. Examples were given of occasions when legislators in this House managed to point out something which the Government took on board, but we could do a great deal better than this.

There is already too much of politicians giving out about the media. We do not need a culture in which people constantly give out about the media. We need a culture in which people hold the media to account. We will do so by identifying that the libel laws alone are not sufficient to protect people, whether in private life or in public life from the depredations of the media. We need a more thorough analysis of how the media operate. While we need to consider that under the heading of privacy, we also need to consider issues like taste and decency, and fairness and balance. We can all outline occasions and instances where the media have been unfair. However, we live at a time when all institutions are coming under scrutiny and there is very little support for self-regulation. While I commend the work being done by the press council, that does not cover broadcast matters. There is no sense that the broadcasting regulatory authorities have any teeth at all. We clearly need to reconsider how we can hold the media to account in a way that does not impact unnecessarily or inappropriately on media freedom.