Dark thoughts that no one needs to hear

RadioReview:   Here's where I disagree with Matt Cooper. He thinks it's important listeners understand how a paedophile thinks, so, on Wednesday (The Last Word with Matt Cooper, Today FM), presumably as another angle on the "Mr A" case, listeners to his drivetime show were subjected to a sick-making interview with a 34-year-old gay Dutch man who is lobbying for the reduction of the legal age of consent in the Netherlands. He'd like it reduced to 12 so that "children can explore their sexual feelings with grown-ups".

He made it quite clear he'd like if one of those grown-ups was himself. He has launched a political party that to date has all of three members. Why give the creepy pervert air space?

Cooper's voice rose several outraged octaves during the interview but I doubt that a single listener felt that their understanding of paedophilia was in any way enlightened by the interview with this weirdo. And if listeners' comments across all stations since the Tuesday freeing of Mr A is anything to go by, people don't want to understand adults who have sex with children - they want them behind bars.

Amid all talk about the case on radio this week, the one voice that cut through the many discussions of constitutional law and political one-upmanship was that of "Jackie". She's the mother of the raped child and on Wednesday she was heard first on Gerry Ryan (2fm), then on Liveline (RTÉ Radio 1) and later on The Last Word with Matt Cooper (Today FM).

The change in her voice from the morning, when she came across as faltering, isolated and nervous, to her tea-time interview where she sounded strong and angry, like a fighter who now knows she isn't alone, was just about the only positive thing to come out of this shocking mess. When she and her now 16-year-old daughter went back to their house in the evening after the court decision, Ryan asked her the subtly revealing "what was it like at home?" "Just empty. Quiet," she said.

She read that her daughter's rapist might be released in the newspapers on Sunday and the Garda confirmed it on Monday. She made it clear throughout the day how fantastic the guards have been in all this - at least one wing of the justice system didn't let her down. They've moved house since the attack, her daughter is in and out of school, still profoundly traumatised by what happened to her. The child got one counselling session but found it hard to talk about it and that was that.

"I'd like to see justice done, I feel the Government have a lot to answer for," she told Ryan, a sentiment she repeated later in the day but with more force and confidence - maybe fuelled by the outpouring of sympathy and support she received on Liveline in the middle of the day.

"Do you think you'll survive this?" asked Ryan. "I might," said Jackie, "but I don't think my daughter will."

"Isn't the Minister for Justice ultimately responsible for this?" Cooper asked Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism John O'Donoghue on Wednesday. O'Donoghue must have been rattled by having to go on air to put a spin on the fiasco - why else would he have started the interview by offering the mother of the raped child his "solidarity"? O'Donoghue robustly defended Minister for Justice Michael McDowell, but if the voices and texters of the public, heard everywhere on radio this week, count, then the answer to Cooper's question is a resounding Yes.

The letters page of this newspaper has been buzzing in defence of Rattlebag, which has been put out to pasture. Not before time - it's tired in just about every way - but the idea of replacing it with a late-night show is lip service to arts coverage of the worst type and betrays a complete misunderstanding of what arts coverage is all about and who it serves. It's not some weird rarefied subject only suited for a graveyard, midnight slot. Nearly 18 million cinema tickets are sold in this small island every year - that's just a single example of how supported one art form is. And as a public service broadcaster RTÉ has a responsiblity to serve listeners in the area of arts and culture, and a daily, intelligent magazine show in a prime slot is the way to do it.

This week, thanks to the perfectly scheduled Front Row (BBC Radio 4) which airs daily in the early evening, I know about all sorts of arts happenings in Britain, from Tom Stoppard's new West End play Rock'n'Roll (Monday), to the details of the new underwater stage at Pinewood studios in London (Tuesday) - Europe's only studio-based, permanently-filled, underwater filming stage that will be used for the latest Bond movie. The proposed new RTÉ arts show sounds far too little and far too late.