The freedom for politicians to make claims in the Dáil with legal immunity is to be reviewed over fears that it is being abused, the ceann comhairle has said.
Seán Ó Fearghaíl said there was “undoubtedly” a problem with how members of the Dáil used parliamentary privilege in the Oireachtas and that a “broad-based consultation” would be announced next week to explore the issue. New penalties for TDs who abuse their privilege, including suspension from the Dáil, would be considered, he said.
Paul Murphy, the Solidarity TD, last week used Dáil privilege to accuse gardaí in the Jobstown trial of committing perjury. Mr Murphy and five others were cleared this month of falsely imprisoning Joan Burton, the former tánaiste, and Karen O’Connell, her aide, during a water charges protest in Jobstown in 2014.
Mr Murphy gave examples of evidence provided by the gardaí during the nine-week trial, some of which was contradicted by video evidence.
He claimed that the inconsistencies in testimony supported calls for an independent public inquiry. “I think it means that numerous gardaí lied under oath. I think they did so in a co-ordinated way. That implies an agreement to commit perjury. I think that is prima facie a conspiracy,” Mr Murphy said.
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The ceann comhairle repeatedly interrupted Mr Murphy, warning him that the Dáil could not review the outcome of criminal trials. Directing the jury at the end of the Jobstown trial, Judge Melanie Greally advised the jury that the video footage should be treated as the principal evidence because it was not subject to “human frailties”.
Yesterday Mr Ó Fearghaíl said that he had concerns about how some TDs were using their constitutional speaking rights. “We will undertake a broad-based consultation by way of producing a high level of quality advice to the committee on procedures which will form the basis for the making of a decision to address the problems that we undoubtedly have,” Mr Ó Fearghaíl told The Week in Politics on RTÉ.
“You have to accept that privilege is a constitutional provision. It’s there for very good reason. The privilege that we have is meant to be used, but it most definitely is not meant to be abused and we have to find ways to deal with the very limited circumstances in which members may deliberately or inadvertently abuse the privilege.”
The oireachtas committee on procedure and privileges can sanction TDs who abuse their speaking rights. Mr Ó Fearghaíl said that these powers were no longer a powerful enough deterrent and called for a “pragmatic approach”.
Some TDs, he said, would consider a sanction as a badge of honour. “Currently we’re in the sort of environment where the sanction of one’s peers could be considered to be a badge of honour and therefore we have to look at more pragmatic ways of dealing with the problem.”
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Mr Ó Fearghaíl said that the consultation would consider introducing fines and suspensions to reprimand TDs that abused Dáil privilege. “All of those things can be looked at. I’m not prescriptive but we have to wait and see what best advice is available to us. We’ll evaluate those and then the committee on procedures will make the best decision possible,” he said.
During the Dáil debate last week Leo Varadkar told Mr Murphy that he had received a fair trial and was “no victim”.
“You were acquitted but that doesn’t mean your behaviour was right,” he said, referring to the protest. Mr Murphy has claimed that he was defamed by the taoiseach. His comments are being examined by the Dáil’s committee on procedure and privileges.