Former Fianna Fβil TD, Mr Liam Lawlor, is on his way back to jail. The Supreme Court has arranged for a cell at Mountjoy Jail to be prepared for the man who treated the Flood Tribunal with contempt. It will be the second time in twelve months that Mr Lawlor has been sentenced to a week's imprisonment. Mr Lawlor is not being jailed because he has been found guilty of corrupt behaviour. No such charge is proven. He is to be incarcerated because he refused to cooperate with a judicial investigation he himself helped to vote into existence.
Last January, in imposing the first prison sentence, Mr Justice Thomas Smyth commented that for an ordinary citizen to be found in such contempt would be a disgrace, but for a public representative, it was a scandal. Confirming the judgement of the High Court to send Mr Lawlor to jail for a week, the five members of the Supreme Court unanimously deplored his behaviour. The Chief Justice, Mr Justice Keane, commented that an additional seven day term of imprisonment would not have been excessive.
During the past eighteen months, Mr Lawlor has been forced to resign from the Fianna Fβil Party and from a number of Dβil committee. On all occasions, he moved reluctantly and under pressure from the opposition parties and from the Progressive Democrats. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, was a reluctant critic. The attitude of some senior Fianna Fβil politicians reflected a culture of denial, underpinned by a fierce determination to remain in power.
In the Dβil, yesterday, the same attitude re-surfaced when Mr Ahern declined to comment on the new developments. Fine Gael went on the offensive. With an eye to the Coalition Government's increasingly threatened voting strength, it demanded that the Ethics Committee of the Oireachtas should consider Mr Lawlor's behaviour and impose an appropriate parliamentary sanction, such as suspension from the Dβil.
Mr Lawlor has got his just deserts. He behaved appallingly in withholding information and cooperation from the Flood Tribunal. The tribunal is investigating corruption within the planning process which, on the basis of evidence heard, was well-rooted and pervasive.
The jailing of the TD for a second time will send a potent message to those other witnesses whose cooperation and evidence have been seriously inadequate.