The Taoiseach has said he “got it wrong” with his comments on Sinn Féin and Shane Ross in the Dáil.
On Tuesday, Micheál Martin told the Dáil that RTÉ had decided not to air an interview with Shane Ross about his new Mary Lou McDonald biography “for fear of being sued.”
He said the situation was having a “chilling effect on public debate and on democracy” and suggested Sinn Féin was given a recorded copy of the interview before it was due to go on air.
Both RTÉ and Sinn Féin have since denied the claim.
RTÉ insisted the decision to drop the interview was “an editorial decision and was not influenced by any legal issues”.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin said it “did not receive a copy of any interview, nor was it sought” and criticised the Taoiseach for using Dáil time to make the claims “particularly when his information is completely incorrect”.
"I got that wrong"
On The Pat Kenny Show this morning, Mr Martin admitted that he was incorrect about the interview being sent to Sinn Féin – but stood by his overall point.
“I got that wrong, in terms of the access,” he said. “By the way, I said ‘apparently’. I said, ‘I understand’.
“It was a very quick interchange with [Deputy] Paul Kehoe who raised it.”
"Chilling"
The Taoiseach said his main point was that when political parties start suing the national broadcaster, it has a chilling effect on democracy.
Earlier this year, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald launched High Court proceedings against RTÉ, suing the national broadcaster for defamation.
“It is a bit hard to look at the Shane Ross saga in isolation and say there is no connection between that and the fact that RTÉ are being sued and that there is a defamation case against them,” he said.
“It does have a chilling effect on media and on broadcasters.”
Some days later...
"I got that wrong" the Taoiseach says in that Sinn Féin never got a copy of the Shane Ross interview
Stands over his comments that suing media has a "chilling effect" describing it as a coordinated strategy from Sinn Féin https://t.co/M0SRn5atoI
— Seán Defoe (@SeanDefoe) October 13, 2022
The Taoiseach said Sinn Féin are “suing a lot now” – suggesting the party is targeting politicians and media outlets.
He accused the party of launching a “coordinated strategy” to stop people talking about its past.
“Sinn Féin can attack other parties about appointments and so on like that but if you attack Sinn Féin about appointments in Northern Ireland, you’ll get a solicitor’s letter,” he said. “You’ll get letters left, right and centre.
“It can’t be one rule for Sinn Féin and different rules for everybody else.
“It is not a healthy development, the degree to which a political party, on almost a serial basis at this stage, a coordinated basis, seeks to shut down debate on legitimate issues in terms of how people who were raped within a particular movement were dealt with.
“These are legitimate issues that need to be discussed, not shut down.”
Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast yesterday, Shane Ross claimed RTÉ got itself “in a knot” over the interview and pulled it because it was “frightened of offending Sinn Féin”.
He called for the broadcaster to appear before an Oireachtas committee to answer questions on the issue.
Speaking about his biography on The Hard Shoulder last week, he described Mary Lou McDonald as “the most important politician in Ireland now”.
You can listen back to the Taoiseach here:
