Outgoing Taoiseach Simon Harris has rejected suggestions that contact made by Fine Gael with RTÉ was an attempt to influence how the broadcaster handled a controversial clip of his interaction with a disability carer.
During a round of local radio interviews on Tuesday morning, Mr Harris was asked if Fine Gael tried to stop the broadcast of the clip of his exchange with Charlotte Fallon in Kanturk, Co Cork.
“I have no awareness of that,” he replied. “I do not believe so.”
In the now-viral clip, a visibly upset Ms Fallon accused the Government of ignoring the disability sector. Mr Harris denied that the sector was being ignored before walking away from her. The Taoiseach later apologised for how he handled the interaction.
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On Tuesday, the Irish Daily Mail reported that Fine Gael figures contacted staff in RTÉ “to express their concern over the video and how it would be featured”.
However, speaking on Shannonside and Northern Sound radio stations, Mr Harris denied that the contact was an attempt to influence the broadcaster’s handling of the clip.
He said it was his understanding that Fine Gael had contacted RTÉ to offer a statement in relation to the incident and to offer further details.
“Which is exactly what would happen when RTÉ are covering any story or indeed Shannonside are covering any story, we’d obviously offer information, and that’s an entirely appropriate and normal thing to do in any sort of political media coverage,” he said.
It had been “entirely appropriate” for the clip to be broadcast as it had been “a very important interaction on the campaign trail”, he said.
Fine Gael’s Paschal Donohoe also said any contact between his party and RTÉ over the use of the controversial clip was “appropriate”.
However, Seamus Dooley, the secretary of the Irish branch of the National Union of Journalists, criticised Fine Gael’s contact with the broadcaster, saying “parties should know better than to try to influence a story or to deflect from an incident”.
“Government ministers and party officials should know not to cross the line and it would appear on this occasion there was an attempt, that that line has been crossed,” he said.
He said that he didn’t believe the Taoiseach’s office had attempted to stop the broadcast but that it seemed to him that there had been “an attempt to take the harm out of the story”.
Mr Dooley said: “I don’t think that RTÉ journalists needed Fine Gael to put a context on the exchanges, journalists are capable of contextualising exchanges between politicians and those who they meet on the canvass without that context being mediated by press officers”.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald described the reports as “chilling” while her colleague Pearse Doherty called on Fine Gael to clarify what was said and whether it was “leaning” on RTÉ.
He said it was a “bit rich” of Fine Gael to criticise Sinn Féin for wanting an inquiry into RTÉ's coverage of Gaza and then, days later, putting pressure on the broadcaster.
RTÉ declined to comment on the matter, while Fine Gael did not respond to a request for comment.
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