The Irish Times Project, which is the re-Anglicisation of the Irish Republic, commenced with the take over of the old Irish Times company by Major McDowell and his Irish Times Trust in the early 1970s. He has a proven racist view of the Irish nationalist.

The Irish Times employed journalists of leftist or liberal views, ostensibly to modernise Irish society, but in fact to portray it as a corrupt society and, with selective journalism, portray 1916 as a mistake.

The Irish Times to-day is highly influential in setting the agendas, not only of its own journalists, but of most journalists in the Republic, including those in RTE.

I'd like to give two examples of how this agenda is used to inflict damage on the Irish state and nation.

Eddie Hobbs has coined the phrase "The Rip Off Republic" in a series of programmes on RTE television. These demonstrate that Irish businesses create excess profits by inflating their prices at every opportunity. It has been reported in the media that this phrase has damaged the image of Ireland abroad and adversely affected its tourist trade.

The influence on prices in the Republic in the Republic is due more than anything else to the fact, as the OECD point out, that we have the lowest level of direct taxation in the world and therefore one of the highest levels of disposable income. Therefore our level of VAT, which is a compensatory tax, is high, and the price resistance of customers is low, both of which cause the higher prices.

This main fact is omitted from the programme. So that, instead of exploring ways the problem might be dealt with, the view is conveyed that this is more corruption and national demoralisation is promoted.

Another example is George Lee on RTE radio a couple of weeks ago deploring the extravagant size and opulence of houses being built around the country, whilst young couples, even on double income, cannot afford to acquire a house. George attributes this to bad taste, greed, and bad government—all national failings. In fact the cause is due to

(a) the abolition of domestic rates—but this was done by the O'Donoghue/Lynch Government, and these were the good guys according to the media, so it is not mentioned

(b) the torpedoing of the centre-left Fianna Fail/Labour Government by the Irish Times.

This was the first of three such attempts to derail Fianna Fail-led Governments by that newspaper.

The centre-right Fianna Fail/PD Government, which won't intervene in the house market, is the result of its one successful attempt at derailment.

What is really required is that the State insists on balanced reporting by the state broadcaster.

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