Dáil (should that be Dial?) phone fiasco is a wake-up call

WE’VE all seen the late-night TV ads in which the sultry voice whispers: “Hot girls in your area waiting by the phone now, call: 1590....”

While I’m not claiming to be an expert on this, I suspect the person at the other end of the phone, if indeed she actually exists, probably isn’t the supermodel-type reclining so provocatively on the screen.

But one thing the whole unseemly Healy-Rae saga has taught us is that politics certainly livens up when you throw premium-rate phone lines and taxpayers’ money into the mix.