Office of the Taoiseach
19 January 2001
Mr John Bruton T.D., Leader, Fine Gael, Dail Eireann Dublin 2
Dear John,
I refer to your letter delivered yesterday in relation to Deputy Lawlor and the Flood Tribunal.
Can I say at the outset that I very much appreciate your forthright acknowledgment that I am deeply concerned about the recent High Court judgment. I also appreciate your express acknowledgment that the Government and the Dail have a very important workload to get through over the next year and a half.
You will be aware that this Government not merely proposed the establishment of the Flood Tribunal but put in place for the first time in 1997 the new jurisdiction to punish by imprisonment for contempt any person who disobeyed its lawful orders. The Government is fully and totally committed to enabling the tribunal to discharge its important mandate freely, impartially and with all the necessary resources and powers.
I have repeatedly made it very clear that I expect every citizen and especially every member of the Oireachtas to co-operate fully with the Tribunal. I have, as you are aware, joined in allparty calls for every member, including Deputy Lawlor, to comply in every respect with the Tribunal's orders.
I wish to state unequivocally and without reservation that I completely condemn the disobedience, non-co-operation and contempt in respect of which Deputy Lawlor was found guilty. I entirely endorse the sentiments of the High Court judge.
While you have criticised the timing of my comments, you will appreciate that as Taoiseach, I have been properly reluctant to comment personally on the issue while court proceedings were pending or while an appeal was a legal possibility. To do so might have prejudiced the judicial process.
The punishment handed down for Deputy Lawlor's contempt was imposed by a trial judge who carefully assessed all the facts and all the submissions made in mitigation on behalf of Deputy Lawlor.
The trial judge is reported as saying that the punitive sanction he imposed was not only an ntrusive sanction for Deputy Lawlor as a TD, but also for his family life and reputation. Mr Justice Smyth drew attention to the fact that a lengthier punishment than that imposed would have caused Deputy Lawlor to lose his Dail seat and expressed himself unwilling to cause that outcome which would disenfranchise those who had voted for him.
You will also be aware that the sentence, in addition to being measured so as not to disenfranchise the electorate, was structured so as to ensure that the suspended portion would act as an incentive to Deputy Lawlor to deliver on his stated willingness to co-operate in future with the Tribunal.
I do not believe that it is my function or yours to second guess or to supplement the judgment of the High Court in this matter, either as to its content or consequences.
I believe that all members of Dail Eireann now expect Deputy Lawlor to accept in full and without reservation the judgment of the High Court which he chose not to appeal and to avail of the time-frame afforded to him by the High Court to fully co-operate with the Flood Tribunal.
Deputy Lawlor is not now a member of the party for which he was elected, is outside its disciplinary powers, and sits in Dail Eireann as an independent Deputy. The Government has indicated its intention to appoint, on Tuesday 30th January next, its own nominees to replace him as a member of the Dail Committees to which he was appointed as a Government Deputy.
You will also be aware that apart from a criminal or civil court order disqualifying Deputy Lawlor from membership of Dail Eireann, the House and its members have no collective power of expulsion as a sanction. There are sound and obvious constitutional reasons for that.
An elected Deputy's decision to remain in or resign from Dail Eireann is, as you personally acknowledged in respect of a different Dail Deputy on a different occasion, ultimately a matter for himself and the electorate. I attach a copy of a transcript of remarks made this week by Deputy Quinn which acknowledge this reality.
It is the Government's firm view that, given the sentence of the High Court, structured as it was to elicit full co-operation within a definite time-frame and the fact that the Judge referred to his membership of Dail Eireann, that Deputy Lawlor should now fully meet the requirements of the Courts and the Tribunal or, that failure to do so within that time-frame would confirm his membership of Dail Eireann to be untenable and that he should voluntarily resign his membership. It is the Government's intention to table a Dail motion, in Government time, to this effect for Tuesday 30th January, 2001.
Yours sincerely,
Bertie Ahern
Taoiseach