Mr Joe O'Toole (Ind) called on the House to express support for and its confidence in the Governor of Mountjoy prison, Mr John Lonergan, who, he said, had been subjected to increasing attempt at moral arbitration by some sections of the media.
The INTO general secretary was highly critical of a report in the Examiner yesterday which stated that Mr Lonergan had invited, on official prison stationery, companies supplying the jail to take out £500 advertisements in a programme being produced by a GAA club.
According to the report, some of letters of solicitation were sent in official unstamped envelopes.
Mr O'Toole said he was raising the issue in the context of recent calls by senators for a debate on the need for a press council.
If we had reached a situation where a leading public servant who was doing a good job might owe the Government the cost of a stamp and that took up a half page in a national newspaper, then things had gone beyond the bounds of tolerance.
It did not do the media any good if they were intent on taking the place of what used to be called the hierarchy in deciding on moral arbitration for the rest of this State.
If things were wrong, public representatives should say so. "If things are not wrong, we should also say so quite clearly."