O'Brien and O'Donoghue – Irish royalty?

Recently, I tuned into the Wide Angle on Newstalk. Dick Roche was on the panel with a couple of journalists.

When the subject of Denis O’Brien and the Moriarty Tribunal came up the presenter informed listeners that the station was owned by O’Brien. There then followed a withering criticism of the tribunal by everybody including the presenter.

The usual attack, too expensive, going on too long, making unsubstantiated claims, should be closed down, not a word of criticism of O’Brien.

O’Brien must be proud that ‘his’ presenter, the journalists and the politician are all in full agreement with him that the tribunal is conducting a personal vendetta against him to justify their existence.

The discussion then turned to the O’Donoghue expenses scandal and among the usual waffle surrounding this scandal we heard what has now become the standard excuse mouthed by dishonest politicians and lazy journalists – It was a different time, different rules (apparently) applied then.

Effectively, we are being told that when there’s lots of money sloshing around it’s perfectly ok for our politicians to spend as if they were royalty.