Alex White criticises Denis O’Brien’s plan to sue

A Labour Party Minister has criticised Denis O’Brien’s decision to sue the Dáil Committee on Procedure and Privileges.

Mr O’Brien said in a statement at the weekend that a person’s right to their good name was a fundamental right the committee had failed to adequately protect and that was why he had initiated the legal action.

“I took this decision because I believe the Dáil Committee on Procedure and Privileges (CPP) failed to properly investigate complaints about abuse of Dáil privilege by Catherine Murphy TD and Pearse Doherty TD, abuse which resulted in the compromising of Orders handed down by the High Court.

“I wish to state that I respect Dáil privilege as long as it is not exploited in a manner designed to damage the reputation of an individual, particularly one who is not before the House and entitled to Dáil privilege,” said Mr O’Brien.

He added that the CPP on April 1st had stated: “CPP is of the view that the right to one’s good name is a fundamental right, and persons outside the House should not be referred to in a manner which would adversely affect their good names or reputations.”

Mr O’Brien said the CPP had acknowledged the Constitution conferred absolute privilege on members of Dáil Éireann in respect of their utterances in the House, and was of the view that under no circumstances should this be abused.

“I concur absolutely with the above,” said Mr O’Brien.

Took issue

Minister for Communications Alex White took issue with Mr O’Brien and defended the right to absolute privilege in the Dáil.

"Parliamentarians that are elected by the people should have the right and indeed the duty to speak clearly and freely in the parliament of the people and that should not change," Mr White told RTÉ's Radio One's This Week programme yesterday.

“It’s an important Constitutional principle that this case should not change and cannot change. It is an absolute cornerstone of our parliamentary democracy,” said Mr White, who added that it was in the public interest that it remain.

“It’s in the Constitution. It won’t be disturbed by any action taken by any individual. It’s important. It should remain and it will remain.”

Tighter regulation

However, former Fine Gael strategist Frank Flannery told the programme he did not want to see parliamentary privilege curtailed, but argued it should be subject to tighter regulation within the Dáil.

“You cannot allow bad practices to become embedded in your democratic processes and you cannot allow circumstances where the rights of citizens under the Constitution can be freely traduced and trampled on even if it’s only happening to a small number,” Mr Flannery said.

“There’s been a tendency recently for citizens to be named in the House – under inverted commas – privilege and criminal activity being associated with their names without those people having he opportunity of defending themselves or getting redress,” he said.

“It would seem to me that if members of the parliament are going to make very serious accusations against named private citizens there must be some system of sifting those and ensuring there is some realistic evidence,” Mr Flannery added.