SEANAD REPORT:THE RESPONSE of the secretary general of the Office of the Houses of the Oireachtas to the letter of resignation from the chairman of the audit committee should have been published in full by The Irish Timesyesterday, Jim Walsh (FF) said.

While the letter from chairman Tom O'Higgins had been fully published, Mr Walsh said he thought it was "a little unbalanced" that the reply of the secretary general, a person with no axe to grind, was not afforded similar coverage, as it had been part of the documentation released to The Irish Timesunder the Freedom of Information process. If it had been, people could have looked at both men's points of view.

“I think it would have brought more balance to it. I feel that is important in this whole media pursuit of expenses. There is an entitlement there for them to do that.There should be absolute probity in politics, but I think there is also a need to take a balanced view.”

Liam Twomey (FG) said if other Ministers had been extravagant with taxpayers’ money, they should do the honourable thing by resigning. There had been massive abuse at the very top of Government . . . and the drip-feed of information by the media was creating . . . a tsunami of public anger.

Joe O’Toole (Ind) said there was a culture outside the House that believed the political system was corrupt. All politicians were suffering as a result of that culture. They needed to change that perception by taking immediate action to inform the public of every expenses claim made and the reason for it.