‘THINK BEFORE YOU TWEET’
POLITICIANS need to think before they tweet, a former Fine Gael leader has warned.
Alan Dukes’s comments come just days after rugby player Paddy Jackson declared his intention to sue Labour senator Aodhán Ó Ríordáin after the Dublin politician voiced his support for the complainant in the Belfast rape trial after Jackson’s aquittal. Meanwhile, weeks earlier, while the trial was still in progress, Leo Varadkar referred to the case while discussing the referendum on the Eighth Amendment in a radio interview. Former Fine Gael leader Mr Dukes said the Taoiseach could have prejudiced the trial had it not been for the swift intervention of broadcaster Pat Kenny.
‘Generally, I just think that politicians should be a hell of a lot more careful about tweeting and Twitter than they are,’ Mr Dukes said. ‘There has been umpteen cases of people getting themselves into bother for good or for less good reasons and I think it’s just nonsense. I just think it has to do with people tweeting before they think.’