Aisling Moloney

Independent Ireland rejects this.

And Jennifer Whitmore made the point that there were children in the gallery and there were teenagers and students in the gallery.

Is that the sort of thing we want to be exhibiting, especially at the time when, as we just mentioned, we're trying to get or at least society is trying to have a more representative parliament where there could be 50 percent representation.

So Ivana Bacik, the leader of the Labour Party, landed a savage burn, as you say, on the media and communications minister, Patrick O'Donovan, who earlier in the week accused the broadcast coverage of the protests as lopsided.

He accused it of being lopsided and skewed and called for the commission to move on.

which is the media regulator to look into the coverage of the protests and also balance on broadcast panels.

So, for example, on RTE when they have a programme and they only have one government representative and they might have three opposition representatives that he was questioning whether that was fair as well.

Now, this was heavily criticised by the NUJ, the National Union of Journalists, but also, as we said, Ivana Bacik in the Dáil levelled the comment, goodbye, Viktor Orbán, hello, Patrick O'Donovan, in response to this.

Now, you know, he was also criticised, or at least his idea of having a review into how RTE and other broadcasters

handled the protest coverage was slapped down by the Tánaiste, Simon Harris, as he walked into Cabinet as well this week saying that there was no need for a review.

So, you know, also the coverage there and the government message on that.

There certainly was some, you know, government sources certainly were questioning the media's role in the protests throughout.

That was certainly something we could pick up on in the media, that they were annoyed by the coverage.

But always when the government don't look good, they're annoyed by the coverage.

But in this instance...

Patrick O'Donovan, the minister, went as far as to say that it should be investigated.

And so that's where those accusations and those level living came.

Absolutely.

And, you know, you were waiting for this big moment when he would come out and do a tell-all interview.

But I also think it's symptomatic of him as a communicator, that he isn't effective and he doesn't put across a convincing message, which plagued him throughout the campaign and ultimately led to the dismantling of it.