Irish government ministers demanded to see questions from the public before a radio phone-in on the state broadcaster, The Times can reveal.
Michael Noonan, the finance minister, and Brendan Howlin, the minister for public expenditure and reform, appeared on RTE Radio 1’s Today with Sean O’Rourke programme on Wednesday after unveiling the budget the day before. Listeners were invited to contact the programme to ask the ministers questions.
A reporter from the Ireland edition of The Times was mistakenly shown into the wrong room at the studios and witnessed a department of finance spokesman making demands of an RTE producer.
“No. We’re going to be very clear on this, the ministers will not go on air before seeing them [the questions] first,” the government official said.
After RTE provided details of what would be included in the show, both departments began making calls and preparing minister’s responses to questions.
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Ministers were warned that callers would include Erica Fleming, a homeless mother who had been living in a Dublin hotel with her daughter since June. “I think it’s really funny the people we elected into government can’t think for themselves,” Ms Fleming said. “They should be able to give a real honest answer and not have to have it written down in front of them. I don’t think the question I was asking was very hard, it shouldn’t have caused so much fuss.”
In a statement, RTE claimed that The Times account was “factually incorrect”. “At no time was a threat delivered that a minister would not appear on the programme as a result of his press advisers not seeing the questions in advance,” it said.
“Advance access to audience questions on specific individuals’ circumstances post-budget queries was given to ministerial advisers as standard practice. The primary purpose of the post-budget programme is to enable the more detailed, personal and specific queries raised by voters and businesses to be addressed to the most accurate degree possible, and that requires some research to be done by advisers on the individuals’ specific questions.”