Minister ‘taken aback’ at RTÉ’s silence over Ryan death

DRUGS Minister Pat Carey said he was “taken aback” by RTÉ’s silence over Gerry Ryan’s cocaine death and said the broadcaster had “sold itself short” in not coming out earlier.

The minister said allegations in the Sunday Independent of corrupt gardaí protecting cocaine-using celebrities, including Mr Ryan, “cast a slur on all gardaí”. He said he expected both the editor and the journalist involved to cooperate with a Garda probe into the allegations.

The minister said RTÉ, and the media generally, were “very judgmental” about model Katy French, who died from cocaine in December 2007, and it had now “come home to roost in their own case”.