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LAST UPDATE | 4 Jul 2018
THE NUJ, OPPOSITION politicians and a number of high-profile journalists have criticised Taoiseach Leo Varadkar for remarks made at a private event in New York this week at which it’s reported he said he sympathised with Donald Trump’s views on the media.
Reports in The Irish Times and the Ireland Edition of The Times this morning detail how Varadkar told guests at a lunch on Monday that he had some sympathy with Trump’s attitude to the press.
According to the Ireland Edition of The Times, he said that political reporters spent more time covering gossip than substantive issues. The Irish Times reported that he said that some investigative journalism in Ireland was incorrect, and singled out RTÉ for particular criticism.
The remarks were made at a lunch for members of the Irish community in the city on Monday.
A number of media outlets have sent reporters to the US to cover Ireland’s bid for a seat on the UN Security Council this week.
Bono and Mary Robinson were drafted in to help the media and diplomatic effort. As part of the charm offensive, all UN ambassadors were invited to U2′s concert at Madison Square Garden.
Seamus Dooley, the Irish secretary of the National Union of Journalists, called for the Taoiseach to clarify his comments.
“Respect for freedom of expression is a core value of UN,” he said on Twitter.
“Attributed comments are damaging to Ireland’s reputation as a modern democracy, given Trump’s views on press freedom.”
In an interview on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland Dooley described the incident as a “rather bizarre occurrence”.
Jon Williams, the managing director of RTÉ News, issued a series of tweets early this morning defending the national broadcaster’s output.
“To be clear, #Trump called the media ‘enemy of the people’. He’s wrong. If Taoiseach really sympathises with that view, he’s wrong too. #PressFreedom.”
Williams pointed out that, “just last month”, Varadkar had praised an RTÉ investigation into hospital consultants, broadcast on Prime Time, when he said RTÉ “did the country a service”.
He added:
This year, #RTEinvestigates honoured @NYFestivals, @CelticMediaFest & @IFTA. Investigative reporting key pillar @rtenews. Proud of its journalism.
Labour leader Brendan Howlin issued a press release criticising the reported comments.
Whatever about criticising the media when at home on the campaign trail, Howlin said, “for Ireland’s Head of Government to attack the Irish media when on a diplomatic and strategic trade mission is wholly inappropriate”.
Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald called for Varadkar to clarify his remarks, saying that the comments as reported “are extremely dangerous, especially when made by the head of government”.
Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy said it’s “unfortunate” that Varadkar “chose the occasion of such an important overseas trip to denigrate the Irish media in such an apparently petty fashion”, and added a call for him to clarify the comments.
A spokesperson for the Taoiseach issued the following statement this morning:
“The lunch, hosted by Ireland’s Consul General in New York, was a private event.
“Attendees included young Irish people based in New York working across a range of sectors, including media, finance and tech. They shared a wide ranging discussion. This conversation is now being quoted selectively and out of context.
The Taoiseach believes that a free, fair and balanced press is a cornerstone of our democracy.
Speaking on Morning Ireland, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy insisted that the Taoiseach believed in a free media, telling presenter Brian Dobson that it was a subject he had personally discussed with Varadkar.
Varadkar had often stressed the importance of making ministers available to the media and regularly took part in press conferences and interviews himself, Murphy said.
The New York comments had been selectively leaked and were now being taken out of context, he said. Asked whether he would like to see the Taoiseach clarify his remarks, Murphy said “I’m sure he’ll get an opportunity to clarify it if it’s raised in the Dáil later on”.
He expected Varadkar would also make a “very robust” defence of the media as part of those public remarks, he added.
At a press event later Murphy and Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe continued the defence of the Taoiseach, with Donohoe saying that both Varadkar and the government were “crystal clear in our appreciation of how vital it is to have a strong and independent media in Ireland”.
The Taoiseach would give a full clarification of his remarks in the Dáil later, Donohoe said.
Murphy said he didn’t know if there was an audio recording of the comments, which he said he understood were made as part of a private conversation with a group of young people “and the privacy of that conversation should be maintained”.
Asked by a reporter whether he accepted that Varadkar sympathised with Trump’s view of the media, Murphy said:
How can I accept what he said when I don’t know whether he said it or not? These are just reports of a conversation or things that he is alleged to have said. And he has said himself through his department that these reports have been taken out of context.
Other criticism
Cork journalist Samantha Barry, who formerly worked at RTÉ, Newstalk and CNN and who now edits Glamour magazine, was also amongst those criticising the Taoiseach’s comments this morning.
Tom Lyons, the Deputy Editor of the Sunday Business Post, described the Taoiseach’s comments on Twitter as “pathetic stuff” and “tone deaf at a time when journalism is under attack in America”.
TV3′s political correspondent Gavan Reilly tweeted:
“Every major Irish media outlet spent a four-figure sum following the Taoiseach to New York this week to cover exactly the sort of topics he’s complaining we ignore. To say this sort of thing behind our backs, at an event closed off to us, is really poor form.”
- Additional reporting Paul Hosford, Sean Murray
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Interesting stats there. in my last lab I was one of 2 guys but there was 10 women
Happy days! :)
Are you working in a biology-related field? If not, that’s very unusual!
Would I be right in saying that a groundbreaking project could not receive funding because it is spearheaded by a man. This positive discrimination, gender quotas and the like are stopping the best person available person for a job, reserch grant etc from getting it.
Imagine the reaction if this was a male only grant.
couldnt agree more.
Any initiative of such importance would be supported
There are countless grants available for men. If a male scientist proposes a project of any merit, it will get funded.
All this talk of ‘best man for the job’ amuses me, as if that’s what happens right now.
You are totally right, this is the world we live in today…
Hi Philib,
The problem is that the best ‘man’ for the job does not always get the job as..he is a she. There are a number of studies confirming gender bias in performance review in STEM and, also, there is a smaller pool to choose. as you know yourself, no doubt, the social and emplowment set-up in Ireland is not the friendliest towards working mothers or fathers who want to spend the first few months raising their child. this leads to a winnowing of the remaining women as they approach 30 odd years of age.
I’m a post-doc in the Netherlands in a STEM field. In a study here a few years ago, they also found that the amount of women in science was relatively poor. They instigated a number of funding initiatives to encourage women to enter, remain in or return to research post-family. It made economic sense-after all, what was the point of them being expensively educated by the state and system only to drive them out? It also prevevnts loss of talented candidates and onset of intellectual poverty. Google NUFFIC-it gives a good shake-down of the rationale forming policy here. It’s working-numbers are climbing.
I have yet to meet a male, Dutch scientist who complains that his chances for advancement are reduced by these initiatives or that less talented women are edging him out of funding. Perhaps they are not quite so insecure. Maybe they won’t say to me directly…who knows?
It’s not an initiative to shaft men, it’s meant to help women and add a bit of balance to the scene. To repeat-helping women to succeed in the face of bias does not mean preventing men from succeeding in a system already tilted in their favour.
Philib, here’s a couple of studies on gender bias in performance review-I can’t send a direct link, google the titles if you like.
Have wonderfull Wednesday All!
Science faculty’s subtle gender biases favor male students. Corinne A. Moss-Racusina,b, John F. Dovidiob, Victoria L. Brescollc, Mark J. Grahama,d, and Jo Handelsman
Study shows gender bias in science is real. Here’s why it matters. By Ilana Yurkiewicz
The Impact of Gender on the Review of Curricula Vitae of Job Appplicants and Tenure Candidates; An Empirical Study. R.E. Steinpreis et al
Unless that research is from Ireland Sarah, it has limited efficacy.
I’d hold out for a job in Rehab tbh. Miles more money, bigger pension and you dont even have to worry about turning over a profit.
Dont worry Bazalini, that €175k is not their salary. That’s for all research costs including salary (and possibly even the salary for any assistants needed on the project). Id be willing to that bet that successful applicants would be lucky to draw a salary even near to €50k….so yeah that rehab job would definitely be a better shout!
Also, its funding for a project that otherwise may not have gotten funded, possibly because it is not “in vogue”. Funding discrimination based on what fields of research are in fashion is unfortunately is a fairly big problem academia, and that is before even getting into any gender discrimination issues. Ideally science should be conducted for science’s sake and the progression of knowledge, rather than for profits. I think this scheme should be welcomed.
+1
Sad to see the taxpayer paying for government gender politics rather than just science.
Research should not be about the genital assignment of the researchers, just the work & its outcomes.
I couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately though, that’s not how it works. A man is far more likely to receive funding and a greater salary. What’s that, if not gender discrimination?
Defenders of the status quo are generally ignorant to how it operates, I’ve found.
“A man is far more likely to receive funding and a greater salary. What’s that, if not gender discrimination?”
Just because their may be an imbalance doesn’t make it discrimination. Equality is about equal opportunity, not equal numbers.
Seems a little weird to be encouraging women with Ph.D’s to remain in STEM fields. Seems very much to be preaching to the choir, women who hold a Ph.D. in a STEM field, really shouldn’t need extra encouragement to get into STEM.
I’m all for promoting women in science, we always need more scientists, but this needs to be done at the secondary and even primary school levels, not at the Ph.D. levels.
John,
What we really need is positions and more funding, (a boost in wages wouldn’t hurt either with post docs now starting on 32k) to encourage people to actually stay in science. The vast majority leave academia right after the PhD or within 5 years because it provides zero financial security and low prospects. Without a significant commercial research sector in Ireland most also leave research.
I’m a scientist in medical research, I get ignored and talked over a lot. I would imagine this happens to a lot of women researchers. More money for women scientists is a very good thing!
All the teachers in my local primary school/creche/secondary school are female, can I get a grant, cos I really need a job, and this discrimination against men is terrible.
Good old leftist social engineering. Just pay people to make up the numbers even if they have no interest in the subject. I hear the next project is to fund women to become professional snooker players.
@agent, did you actually read the article? It clearly states that prospective candidates need a PHD or MD. So they’re hardly picking random women who have no interest in STEM research.
Totally skewed approach for aligning equal gender representation in STEM. Grants should be awarded based on the quality and strength of the applicant and their proposal, not on their gender. Will the government be rolling out a similar, positive discrimination scheme for areas in which men are unrepresented?
Would you ever make valid points
Men and women have the exact same opportunities to study science in this country, instead why not offer grants to the best regardless of gender? That would do a lot more for science
As a product of the Irish education system I can tell you that men and women don’t have the same opportunities to study science and engineering. In secondary school; I was actively discouraged from taking subjects like metal work, chemistry and physics – sure why wouldn’t I want to do home edc instead? I studied Microbiology and biochemistry in college and while it was much better for me then in secondary school, friends of mine who studied chemistry and physics told me that some TAs and Lectures almost expected them to drop out at some stage.
It is an uphill struggle for woman to get into certain fields of science; let alone get a PHD in a subject and once they get there they often find it difficult to get grants.
Surely a job/grant/etc should be given based on merit not gender. I know there are far less women in the lab sciences, but surely the answer is to see why as opposed to anything else.
Positive discrimination strikes again!!
Women in the workplace. Bad idea.
Just mention Gerbil Worming [aka climate change] and you get double :-)
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