‘Journalists forced to be Coalition’s chief critics’

The media has taken over the role of opposition to the Coalition due to the country’s “bizarre crisis”, a Fine Gael TD has warned.

Wicklow’s Simon Harris said problems within Dáil opposition parties had led to a situation where a government could be “contemptuous and dismissive”.

Mr Harris, who admitted he and other backbenchers are used as “lobby fodder” to a degree in the current Dáil setup, insisted much of the public anger directed at the Coalition was “media fuelled”.