Bertie Ahern says that the media don’t seem to care much for parliamentary reporting anymore? Deaglan De Bréadún (subs. required) reporting a speech yesterday by Mr. Ahern says that the media are more interested in celebrity than parliament.

…In an address to the Irish Parliamentary (former members) Society at Leinster House, Mr Ahern said politicians were sometimes dismissed as irrelevant, but they had been responsible for the key milestones in the development of the country.

It was difficult for politicians to compete with “the glitter of celebrity”, he said, given that the media had less time today for “serious parliamentary reporting”….

…More needed to be done to promote the work of the Dáil and Seanad to the public: “It is particularly hard for us to compete for attention with the glitter of celebrity. And the media has less time today for serious parliamentary reporting,” he said.

“It also has to be recognised that, while there can be moments of high drama, the process of legislating and debating is unexciting and uninspiring much of the time.” Mr Ahern added that there were “serious issues at play in our parliament” and politicians had to keep trying “to raise people’s awareness of what we are about”.

This a parliament that sits publicly for less days each year (yes I know about committees and agree they need more coverage) and from a Taoiseach and government who have reduced the number of days and times that they will take questions on current events from the opposition. The government are surrounded by backbenchers who can’t ask real questions and have their speeches written for them by others. Bertie has been taking Thursdays off for ages now to open pubs and cut ribbons and the like. If the Oireachtas sat more often there might be more to report!!! Stinks of hypocrisy I’d say. Bertie’s parting words are getting curiouser and curiouser…