Irish Examiner view: Disdain for Oireachtas committees is close to contempt for democracy

Twitter/X took part in a 'deeply frustrating' meeting, the FAI delivered late and heavily-redacted documents, and key RTÉ figures have not even offered a pretence of co-operation 

Sources criticised Twitter/X for delivering its opening statement only an hour or so before the media committee met, and taking so long to make its presentation. Picture: PA

Representatives of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, met with the Oireachtas media committee this week to discuss combatting misinformation and other matters.

Sources told this newspaper that the meeting was “deeply frustrating” — the X representatives claimed they were unaware that Irish Examiner columnist Séamas O’Reilly had been locked out of his account, for instance.

Not every meeting can be productive and successful, but what is far more worrying is the attitude shown by X towards the operation of an Oireachtas committee, an attitude that aligns with a growing number of examples of disdain for and non-co-operation with such committees.

Members of the media committee were unimpressed that X’s opening statement had only been received an hour or so before proceedings began, and at the length of time used by X representatives to present. The company had already declined an invitation to meet in public session before Christmas.

On Thursday at the Public Accounts Committee, a similar scenario unfolded. 

The Football Association of Ireland (FAI) was on hand to discuss its latest financial embarrassment but TDs were already unhappy that the organisation had failed to submit its opening statement by the deadline set, even though the meeting was flagged in November. 

The FAI had already been granted one adjournment of the meeting and sought unsuccessfully to get a second adjournment last week.

Those TDs hardly had their humour improved by emails provided by the FAI yesterday, some of them totally redacted and useless for the purpose of discussion.

Those FAI representatives could at least claim to have turned up to the meeting. Key figures in the ongoing RTÉ payments scandal have not even offered a pretence of co-operation with the PAC hearings on that matter. More than one of them has simply declined to attend and given no reason for doing so.

These are three very different situations, but they are linked by what is very close to contempt for the democratic process. Whether those organisations are being deliberately obstructive or accidentally incompetent, the lack of respect shown to public representatives in the Oireachtas also applies to the people of Ireland. On that score those organisations could do with a sharp change in their attitude.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

Irish property prices still soaring

House prices in Ireland are now higher than they were in 2007, the high-water mark of property prices before the economic collapse.

Irish property prices rose by nearly 5% last year, with the median price of a home sold in 2023 identified as €327,500. That means the price of a home in Ireland is now significantly higher than that Celtic Tiger peak, up 7.7% from the height of the property boom in April 2007 (that peak was passed in late 2022).

Those figures should give us pause on a number of fronts. For instance, while it is all-but inevitable that prices should be markedly higher today than they were almost 20 years ago, readers can answer for themselves whether their wages are also markedly higher now than they were in 2007.

An obvious comparison would be the growth in wages between 1990 and 2007, the time of the previous peak, and the growth between 2007 and 2024, the new peak.

The leap forward in earning power certainly seemed considerably higher in the first time period.

This latest high-water mark for property prices comes in an Ireland which is very different to 2007 on other fronts. We have thousands of people homeless, swathes of dereliction across the country, a housing market beset by a dearth of affordable rental accommodation, one complicated further by the explosion in lucrative short-term renting. Airbnb, whose presence is complicating the housing and accommodation markets here, only came into existence in 2007.

The latest spike in house prices may be good news for those already on the property ladder, but it illustrates the size of the challenge facing first-time buyers. The news coincided with an even starker revelation: More than 19,000 eviction notices were served in Ireland last year. Little wonder that our housing market was this week described as “dysfunctional”.

That description came not from activists or protesters, but the representative body for insurance and finance brokers. Some may welcome the soaring prices but we must ensure there is no repeat of what happened following that 2007 peak.

What's your view on this issue?

You can tell us here

Farewell, Denis Minihane

On Wednesday, the 'Irish Examiner' said farewell to its longest-serving employee as Denis Minihane retired.

Denis joined the then Cork Examiner as a 17-year-old, starting in the darkroom and then becoming a photographer two years later.

In the course of his career, it is estimated he took over 500,000 photographs. He collected 27 national and international awards. Some of those photographs are immortal, but he needed to show all the tenacity a great journalist needs to capture some of those images.

The photograph he took of bodies stored in a temporary morgue in the old Cork Regional Hospital after the Air India disaster in 1985 was a stunning image and a classic old-fashioned scoop. Life magazine, then in its considerable pomp, sought a hard copy of its next edition, which had to be flown to London and on to New York.

His skill and persistence were noted by his colleagues in conveying their best wishes, all of which shared one description of the West Cork native: A gentleman to his fingertips. Enjoy the retirement.