Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty has welcomed the High Court ruling that it cannot interfere with utterances made in the Dáil about Denis O’Brien.
Denis O’Brien is the largest shareholder of Independent News & Media, of which the Irish Independent is the flagship publication.
O’Brien brought a case to the High Court regarding the separation of the House of the Oireachtas and the justice system. He attempted to sue the Dáil Committee on Procedures and Privileges and the State due to comments made by TDs Pearse Doherty and Catherine Murphy about O’Brien’s financial affairs.
O’Brien’s senior counsel, Michael Cush, said that the comments made breached confidentiality regarding O’Brien’s personal banking details.
Cush argued that these comments led to the Oireachtas straying into the domain of the judicial system before the courts had made an official adjudication on the matter, with he argues violates article 15.13 of the Irish Constitution. Article 15.13 of the Constitution asserts that TDs and Senators “shall not, in respect of any utterance in either house, be amenable to any court or an authority other than the house itself.”
Doherty and Murphy’s comments were made in May and June 2015. Doherty asserted that O’Brien attempted to extend loan agreements worth €315 million with the liquidators of the Irish Bank Resolution Corporation (IBRC) three times before the fourth was accepted in 2013. IBRC is the state-owned company which took over Anglo Irish Bank and Irish Nationwide during the recession.
Similarly Murphy drew attention to the ‘extremely favourable interest rates’ O’Brien received from the IBRC.
O’Brien was given a platform by the Irish Times in which he writes that “some of the media in Ireland has become more and more vicious and invasive” and mentioned that he sought his solicitors to place an immediate injunction preventing RTÉ from reporting on his banking affairs – which ultimately cost the tax-payer €110 million.
Speaking after the ruling was made Teachta Doherty said;
“This ruling is very welcome as it vindicates both myself and Teachta Catherine Murphy and makes it clear that our comments, made under Dáil privilege, did not affect the outcome of his case against RTÉ.
“The only information I put on the Dáil record at that time was information that was in the public interest. In fact I had other information that I decided not to put into the public domain because, in my view, it is not in the public interest.
“This judgement now provides absolute clarity and lifts the concerns of TDs of raising issues of national importance.”
by Elaine McCallig
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