For the high and mighty, freedom of speech is much less important than the freedom to stay schtum. The really rich and influential crave privacy infinitely more than fame. Media investigation, therefore, always feels like gross intrusion to big shots with something to hide.

These are the ways of the world, which is why a free press must be allowed to get on with its job of holding the powerful to account.

However, thanks to Michael McDowell’s proposed privacy bill, that job is set to become virtually impossible. In fact, by the time the justice minister is finished we may not even have a free press.

Whether he likes it or not, McDowell is now the toast of every VIP chancer in the country. Having long posed as the bête noire of the corrupt and criminal, the justice minister has just become their knight in shining armour. His privacy bill amounts to a charter for those who abuse power, providing them with lavish legal protection from media scrutiny.

Under the proposed legislation, Ireland would have even greater press restrictions than France, where the media is notoriously deferential to political figures. Individuals would be able to take privacy actions against newspapers if they feel “distressed” following awkward inquiries or robust questioning by journalists. Incredibly, the aggrieved could also apply to have their cases heard in private.

Though these regulations are presented as safeguards for ordinary, law-abiding citizens, it is inevitable that they will be used most avidly by those most deserving of media attention.

Politicians and developers already implicated in wrongdoing, for instance, rarely use libel laws as they have little reputation left to lose. However, they will henceforth be free to repel legitimate media examination by using McDowell’s privacy laws.

Having long insisted that Ireland did not need a privacy law, McDowell has obviously capitulated to Fianna Fail cabinet colleagues who feel either fearful of, or vengeful towards, the media. For all its myriad faults, the press has liberated several significant skeletons from the closets of politicians in recent years, and there’s still plenty of rattling going on in there.

It is in the interests of every citizen that McDowell be stopped from making it easier for the crooked to cover their tracks. What you don’t know can hurt you.

• We should be grateful that Eddie Sullivan never became a mechanic. The senior civil servant was charged with identifying the cause of the breakdown in the operating systems of the attorney-general’s (AG) office leading to the statutory rape crisis. Yet, having subjected the machinery to an under-the-bonnet inspection, his conclusion was that, well, it just broke down.

  Sullivan’s report was dismissed by the opposition as “political whitewash”. In reality, it seems more like the punch line to an elaborate black joke at the public’s expense.

  Since 1995, staff at the AG’s office have been obliged to bring all cases related to minors to the attention of their boss. Last May, however, AG Rory Brady was taken by surprise when the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional a law relating to the statutory rape of young girls. Pledging that nothing like this will happen again, the government asked Sullivan to conduct a report, but did so in language that suggested it didn’t want any hard-hitting answers.

  His finding? “The case should have been brought to the attention of the attorney-general on a number of different occasions . . . but it was not.” Boom boom!

  Doyle blunders into Donegal

  Craig Doyle should learn that Ireland’s most breathtaking landscape is its political one. The Dublin-born BBC travel presenter has lent support to local authority plans for a ban on holiday homes in parts of Donegal, such as Dunfanaghy. Last year, Doyle ranked the county among the world’s most disappointing holiday destinations because of its innumerable “nasty developments”.

  Fair enough. However, in siding with Donegal county council, Doyle is aligning himself with the wrong team. It’s the council’s fault that local planning is a mess, not least in areas like Dunfanaghy, where 80 jobs will be lost this week because of its failure to approve a traffic-management plan.

  Donegal should not ban holiday homes, but rather take a creative approach to their location and design. The visitors who use them each summer are essential to the local economy. The most vehement opponents of holiday homes are hoteliers and politicians. In Donegal, these are almost invariably the same people.

  The kids aren’t the only ones on drugs

  There was predictable public outrage last week following the claim by an Oireachtas committee report that 300,000 young people — half the population aged between 16 and 25 — are regular cannabis users.

  However, the report tells us nothing about the number of people over 25 who habitually skin up. As the majority of this age group are parents, such statistics would offer a telling insight into the hypocrisy of much stated public opinion about young people’s cannabis use.

  In many circles, dope smoking is as socially acceptable among the middle aged as it is among teenagers. It even happens at dinner parties, often while guests are grumbling about the disgraceful hedonism of today’s “yoof”.

  Creating hysteria about the drug habits of the young, while ignoring the recreational behaviour of their elders, is as pointless as it is deceitful. So let’s not be ageist: older stoners have their stories, too.

• A group of amateur Irish prospectors who struck oil in Belize have credited lifestyle guru Tony Quinn with their success. All of the firm’s partners and several of its investors were graduates of Quinn’s positive- thinking seminars and say they would never have hit black gold without his “mind technology”.

  Unfortunately, the company has had to close its oilfields after the Belize government imposed an enormous tax bill. However, the positive thinkers shouldn’t despair.

  Quinn offers another service whereby, for a small fee, he can help clients achieve any goal by “focusing one-directionally” on their desired outcome. The process seems especially effective with Revenue matters. Quinn now lives in tax exile in the Bahamas.

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