Mullooly claims Government attempted to change RTÉ coverage

by David Flynn

Independent Ireland launched its general election manifesto on Friday morning at an event in the Athlone Springs Hotel.

At the launch, the party’s sole MEP claimed there had been times when Fianna Fail and Fine Gael tried to change broadcasting coverage, when he worked at RTE.

The launch took place at Athlone Springs Hotel in Monksland – an area close to the electoral battlegrounds of Deputy Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway), Cllr Paul Hogan (Longford-Westmeath), Cllr Fergus McDonnell (Offaly) and Cllr Declan Geraghty (Galway-East).

The top table at the launch included the party’s three TDs and their local MEP Ciaran Mullooly.

The party leader, Deputy Michael Collins reminded the gathering that Independent Ireland has three TDs, one MEP and twenty-four councillors. He spoke about the current issue of housing and delays in planning and poor management, before saying one of their main priorities is to see a Department of Efficiency and Reform to tackle waste and inefficiency in government. Deputy Collins said it would be an independent watchdog, staffed by people from the private sector, and “not career politicians.”

Deputy Fitzmaurice and Ciaran Mullooly were deeply critical of the handling of the Mercosur trade deal in Dublin and Brussels.

“I’m laying down the gauntlet to our Taoiseach because there is a huge concern that the deal will be split by unelected bureaucrats in Europe and brought in by the back door, and that is very serious for democracy and agriculture,” said the Deputy Fitzmaurice. “I believe our Taoiseach has to go to Ursula von der Leyen (President of the EU Commission) and get an undertaking that this should be brought to every parliament. The consequences are huge, not alone for Ireland, but for farmers across Europe.”

He also said that a red line for the party would be no national cull of animals.

Ciaran Mullooly MEP said that in terms of the Mercosur deal, if it goes ahead there would be a loss of between €44 and €55 million, which he said were Department of Enterprise figures.

“It’s not good enough for Fianna Fail and Fine Gael and others to wait and see if a deal appears, the deal has been cut, done and colleagues in Europe are telling me that there’ll be a compensation deal, but we’re telling them we don’t want a compensation deal, we want our markets,” said the MEP, to applause from the Athlone audience.

Ciaran Mullooly was well-known as a Midlands Correspondent for RTE for over twenty-five years. He told the gathering he saw attempts by Fianna Fail and Fine Gael to “change coverage,”.

“This is no myth. I have text messages on my phone from Director of News, who had to stand up to Heads of Communications in government and tell them to mind their own business when they tried to change my reports,” said the MEP.

“I challenge the media here to report that. I was fortunate to have a boss who told them where to go, who stood over the journalism that was done. We want to protect our state broadcaster and other broadcasters in the face of commentary like that.”