An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business
Seanad Éireann — 2026-06-23
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Alison Comyn (FF), Nominated by the Taoiseach

I also congratulate, formally, Senator Ahearn on his appointment. He has been doing a sterling job so far and I know he will into the future. I look forward to working with him.
I warmly welcome his family, who are rightly proud today. They will always remember this date.
There are other dates that are permanently etched in the minds of generations of people. It might be the assassination of JKF or the passing of Elvis, but for a young journalist working in the Dublin in the mid-90s, it was definitely the senseless murder of the journalist Veronica Guerin in June 1996. This Friday will mark the 30th anniversary of her death. I was working in the continuity department of RTÉ at the time. I was the person who the station would break to when there was breaking news. Unfortunately, the breaking news that day was her murder at Newlands Cross. There was pandemonium and stunned silence at the same time. You would have to think that her death was not in vain when, only four months later, the Criminal Assets Bureau was established. The bureau has gone on to do incredible work. There were 34 journalists killed around the world in 1996. Veronica's was not an isolated case. We are only halfway through this year and 21 journalists have already been killed around the world. Being a journalist is still a very dangerous job. We have never seen a more divisive and polarised media right across the world. An independent and trustworthy media is something we really need to value and hold on to. As media spokesperson in the Seanad and as a member of the arts committee, I want to see a debate on how we can protect and make sure that our media is both independent and trustworthy. That is probably a worthy debate to have here. For now, we should think back to Veronica. We will think of her family this Friday. We hope that when they look back, they will see that her passing was not in vain.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-06-23/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:55:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-23