With Fitzwilton's £30,000 payment to Mr Ray Burke now under inquiry by the Flood tribunal, it is appropriate to focus on a secondary - though far from inconsequential - aspect of this episode; namely its coverage over the past week in most of the national newspapers which operate within Dr Tony O'Reilly's Independent group.
Independent titles laid down a veritable barrage against the spokespersons who took up the issue in the Dail and elsewhere. They deployed reporters, commentators, analysts, columnists - every weapon in the editorial armoury - to castigate Opposition leaders who, inter alia, resurrected the unprecedented expressions of support in Dr O'Reilly's newspapers for Mr Ahern's proposed coalition Government in the general election. A front page comment in the Irish In- dependent proclaimed a "vicious, calculated and damaging smear campaign"against its parent-company. On the same morning, the political correspondent of this newspaper reported details of correspondence in 1990 and 1991 between Mr Burke, then Minister for Communications, and Mr Joe Hayes, at that time Managing Director of Independent Newspapers in Ireland. The thrust of that report was that Mr Hayes received undertakings from the Minister in respect of Independent's television relay company and that the Minister had departed, in some respects, from the advice of his officials in his response. In accordance with long-established practice at The Irish Times the full text of the correspondence was also published.
The effect of this publication was a concentration of Independent firepower on The Irish Times. It was both immediate and sustained, starting with The Sun- day Independent and continuing into the week in the Irish Independent. A series of articles, some signed, some anonymous, accused The Irish Times of a "travesty of fair reporting" while stridently denying a range of offences which this newspaper never alleged to have taken place at all. RTE was later joined in the indictment, charged also with begrudgery against Dr O'Reilly on the grounds that he is "rich, successful and self-made."
The Irish Times has never held or expressed any such view of Tony O'Reilly. On the contrary, it has lauded his entrepreneurial skill, his leadership and his courage which have brought the Independent group to a position of international strength and influence. The Irish Times has always recognised and applauded his practical patriotism, his love of country and his immense contribution both financial and cultural. But none of this means that one should be blind to the dangers of concentration of ownership in media or of corporate linkages between media organisations and other commercial companies.
It is a matter of public record that Dr O'Reilly does not intervene in the editorial content of his newspapers. It is remarkable therefore that so many on his payroll, unbidden and unprompted, will respond with one unvarying and uncritical voice at a time like this. This is employee loyalty of a kind which is all too rarely to be found in today's world and Dr O'Reilly and his fellow-shareholders must consider themselves exceptionally fortunate to be its recipients.
Meanwhile there is further, persuasive opinion quoted in Geraldine Kennedy's report in this morning's editions that Mr Burke did, indeed, exceed his brief in his response to Mr Hayes's requests in 1991. Not only did he depart from the advice of his civil servants - who signalled that the issuing of the letter was a personal act by the Minister - but it was subsequently the view of senior counsel for the Attorney General (at the time, Mr Dermot Gleeson) that Mr Burke acted unlawfully and ultra vires of his authority. The irony must be that in the end, Mr Burke's letter to Mr Hayes could be legally worthless.