PR: Credibility of Committee in Question
09.05.2000
The All-Party Oireactais Committee on the Constitution met for the last day of hearing oral medical submissions on abortion today. Clearly the credibility of many of those submissions are questionable given the long campaigning history of some of the participants. Of equal concern however is the credibility of the whole process under current circumstances.
Therefore the exclusion by name of the Public Relations Officer of Youth Defence from the visitors gallery raises serious questions. In spite of having attended the hearings previously Justin Barrett was refused admission today. Three members of the Oireactais were willing to sign for him yet this made no impression on the front office who claimed that they had orders from the Superintendent of the Dail not to admit him under any circumstances.
What we must wonder was planned for todays session that it needed to be conducted outside the observation one of the foremost lobby groups on the issue? Is any person advocating the killing of children similarly excluded? Who actually gave the order since it isn’t believable that the Dail Superintendent countermanded three members of the Oireactais on his own authority?
Under the circumstances it is extremely difficult to see how the Committees hearings can be seen by the objective observer as free, fair and unbiased, much less as “public hearings”.
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