Deafening silence over sex offender interventions

NEWSPAPERS like ours get dozens of press releases from political parties every day, many of them reacting to the major stories or issues of the day.

Earlier this month, for example, this newspaper broke a story that the St Vincent de Paul had paid €150,000 for psychological assessments for schools in the Dublin region alone. That triggered a slew of releases from the opposition criticising the Department of Education and Minister Mary Hanafin.

But a strange thing happened this week. The Irish Examiner broke a story that junior minister Tony Killeen’s office had made representations seeking the early release of a sex offender.