Pat Rabbitte: RTÉ acting as recruiting sergeant for far left

Labour Party has launched a broadside against RTÉ, accusing the national broadcaster of acting as a "recruitment sergeant" for the far left and Sinn Féin.

Former minister for communications Pat Rabbitte, with the blessing of the party leadership, used his speaking time during a Dáil debate on water charges to criticise the broadcaster's coverage of the issue, alleging it was biased in favour of opponents of the charges.

“RTÉ has acted as a recruiting sergeant for those who have taken control of, and are manipulating, the water protests,” he told the Dáil.

He said it was clear RTÉ was relying heavily on a source inside the company who sought “to ground a natural bias with distorted information, half-truths and bits of emails and internal papers”.

Mr Rabbitte said its “lopsided” coverage suggested it might derive “from a decision of the RTÉ board to strangle Irish Water at birth”.

“We can all carry a chip on our shoulder for what happened our country and we are all entitled to an opinion as to why it happened and we can all be bitter about the erosion of our living standards. But that does not justify abandoning the usually high standards practised by the public service broadcaster,” he said.

The strong public criticism from a senior figure in Labour has come at the end of a long period during which the party’s leadership has become increasingly frustrated at RTÉ.

A source said it had declared a long-threatened war with Montrose over the issue. “It’s been a long time coming”, said the source.

Numerous TDs complained about RTÉ’s coverage of the water charges issues at a meeting of the Labour parliamentary party on Wednesday. One of the complaints was that a disproportionate amount of coverage was given to water protesters who turned up at Labour’s annual conference in Killarney a few weeks aggo.

An RTÉ spokeswoman saids the station absolutely refuted the claims of imbalanced and biased coverage of the introduction of water charges.

“This has proved to be a contentious issue and RTÉ analysis, debate and coverage has been proportionate and objective,” she said.

RTE’s head of current affairs David Nally posted a response to Mr Rabbitte’s criticisms on his Twitter account: “When the water charge protesters and the Government both think we’re biased against them I guess RTE must be getting it about right,” he wrote.

Sinn Fein deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald described Mr Rabbitte's comments as "bizarre".

“His comments strike me as deeply troubling, coming from a former minister for communications. To say that RTÉ have been biased in their coverage of a matter of such enormous public interest smacks of desperation from a Government that is clearly rattled by the huge turnout at the water protests and now seeks to stifle media coverage,” she said.

“This Government has continually played down the significance of public protest; this strategy has not worked.”

Independent socialist TD Clare Daly also criticised Mr Rabbitte’s comments.