http://www.fma.ie/faith_in_media/2010/3/press_release_minister_should_distance_himself.html
Seems like mcsavage is in trouble again for his attempts at "comedy"..this time joking about child abuse.
Minister should distance himself from brother’s joke about child abuse
In an interview during yesterday's The Saturday Night Show broadcast on RTÉ One television, David McSavage, brother of the Minister for Children, Barry Andrews made light of the issue of child abuse and was highly offensive to the vast majority of Catholics who abhor abuse.
In response to the following question/statement by the Show's Presenter, Brendan O'Connor, "Your brother is Barry Andrews, the Minister for Children?", Mr McSavage replied,"Yes he is and I used to kick the sh** out of him when he was a child!"
Later on, after bringing up the topic of the Catholic Church, Mr McSavage said, "I mean, but if it was a choice between a heroine addict and a priest to baby sit my child...", at which point Mr O'Connor intervened to cut short the topic.
Mr McSavage's comments take on added significance when one considers the role of his brother, the Minister, in overseeing both the Murphy Report and the Ryan Report which had, as part of its brief, the whole area of non sexual physical abuse in the context of religious institutions.
The Family and Media Association, FMA, calls on the Minister to distance himself from the remarks.
At a time when alcohol abuse is becoming ever more widely recognised as an extremely serious problem for our young people, FMA is also concerned about the apparently ambivalent attitude to his own alcohol problem which Mr McSavage displayed on the same broadcast.
While we are concerned for the welfare of Mr McSavage, we are also concerned about the irresponsibility of RTÉ in allowing him (and others) to be seen as a role model.
RTÉ does this when it uses public money to fund programmes like The Savage Eye and give Mr McSavage and others a platform.
The Government now needs to plough some 6 billion Euro into Anglo Irish Bank in the next year, a bill which is, in part, being funded by a 4% cut in social welfare. FMA believes that the 60 million euro of public money that the Government gives annually to RTÉ could be better spent!
On the plus side for RTÉ, Mr O'Connor is to be congratulated for his decisive intervention after Mr McSavage's heroine addict comment. This contrasts with the failure of Gerry Ryan to stop jokes made by Tommy Tiernan about children suffering from Down Syndrome when hosting the Late Late show over a year ago. However the whole episode shows the drastic need for standards in RTÉ’s broadcasts. Minister for Communications Eamonn Ryan must now intervene to ensure taxpayers and license payers money is not used for gratuitously offensive and insensitive broadcasts that belong in the gutter.
