Madam, - The comments made in the Dáil by the Minister for Justice about Tuesday's Prime Time report on the Thornton Hall prison site - widely reported including in your newspaper - require a response.
Mr McDowell was invited at 4pm on Monday to appear live on the programme to air his views. His office told us at 1pm the following day that he would not be doing so. At that point Prime Time prepared and sent to his office a detailed list of questions. Later that evening, Mr McDowell's office replied saying he could not address any of our questions as "the matter is the subject of High Court proceedings".
Having chosen not to appear, the Minister then proceeded to comment at length on the matter in the Dáil - comments which he would have been very welcome to make on Prime Time and which would have been a valuable addition to the programme.
In our view, the report as broadcast was a fair and accurate account of the questions which inevitably arise from the facts and which are greatly exercising local residents.
For instance, Prime Time reported correctly the attempts which were made by the owner of the original Coolquoy site, Mr Noel Browning, to re-enter the process in January 2005. It is the Minister's view that Mr Browning was not in fact intending to put his property back "on the table".
That is a matter of interpretation but it was, and remains, our view that a reasonable interpretation of the relevant exchanges leads to the conclusion that Coolquoy was indeed back in the picture as a potential site for the new prison and we understand that that is Mr Browning's own view also.
To take a further example, the Minister attaches great significance to the fact that we did not say that the price-per-acre of Thornton Hall was two thirds the price-per-acre of Coolquoy.
There are many ways in which the relative prices of the two properties can be viewed. In fact the programme made it clear that Thornton Hall was cheaper than Coolquoy. But it also made it clear that in the case of Coolquoy there are obvious reasons why it might command a price as high as €320,000 euro per acre. In the case of Thornton Hall, however, the price paid of almost €200,000 per acre was greatly in excess of the market value of similar land, with very limited development potential, in the area. The programme took the view that this is the salient point and we stand over that editorial judgment.
It is perhaps inevitable that the programme makers' view of which facts are the most important and of how those facts should be expressed will differ from the Minister's own view. That it is why it is so regrettable that the Minister chose not to present his view on the programme. The offer to the Minister to appear on Prime Time in relation to this issue remains open. - Yours, etc,
DAVID NALLY, Editor, RTÉ Current Affairs, Dublin 4.