Makers of Haughey series deny bias

The makers of the RTÉ television series on the life of Charles J. Haughey have rejected suggestions that the programme is biased in favour of the former taoiseach.

Mint Productions, owned by broadcaster Miriam O'Callaghan and producer Steve Carson, have also rejected a claim by the former PD founder, Des O'Malley, that he was misled about the nature of the series.

Mr O'Malley contacted the production company last August, just weeks after giving it a recorded interview, complaining that he had believed the series was about Fianna Fáil rather than Mr Haughey.

He then rang Ms O'Callaghan and voiced the opinion that he had been "misled" - an opinion which he restated this weekend ahead of tonight's episode.

Ms O'Callaghan has denied the claim, however. "I always told him the programmes were about Haughey. I'm not known for deceiving people and I'm not going to start now," she said yesterday. Mr Carson added that it was "utterly implausible" that Mr O'Malley was unaware that the series was about Mr Haughey.

He said Ms O'Callaghan wrote a letter to the former PD leader on June 30th, 2004, explaining the series was "a four-part documentary on Fianna Fáil and Charles Haughey for RTÉ which will be broadcast some time next year".

The letter was both posted and faxed to Mr O'Malley and followed up by a further letter on July 19th last, listing areas to be covered in the interview.Attempts to contact Mr O'Malley for comment yesterday were unsuccessful.

Mr Carson also rejected suggestions that the series was overly

sympathetic to Mr Haughey, saying: "It was always going to be the sort of series which people who were pro-Haughey would say was biased and people against him would say was too soft."