Sir, – Tom Hickey's opinion piece in Saturday's newspaper ("Spectre of litigation hovers over our parliamentarians", March 2nd) highlights some serious issues in relation to the recent Supreme Court ruling in the Kerins case.
The Supreme Court judges reiterated the “robust immunity” conferred by Article 15 of the Constitution on the Oireachtas, including Oireachtas committees, but did introduce a qualification.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) was deemed to have strayed far from the remit given to it by the Oireachtas. In addition, the judges placed some weight on the Dáil Committee on Procedure and Privilege’s decision to deny the PAC the option of compelling Angela Kerins to attend, interpreting this as indicating that the Oireachtas itself believed that the PAC had strayed beyond its remit.
Tom Hickey’s interpretation of this decision is that TDs in the future will proceed with caution, even when making statements that are covered by Article 15 immunity.
The PAC has a strong history of highlighting the waste and misuse of public money and ensuring accountability of those that spend it. It has had some notable successes over many decades. Many of these successes would have been impossible to achieve without the immunity granted under Article 15.
However the behaviour of some PAC members in recent years has raised disquiet, both in terms of the range of issues that it has investigated and the aggression with which some witnesses have been questioned.
This public disquiet was undoubtedly a factor in the failure to pass the referendum on expanding the powers of Oireachtas committees.
Tom Hickey may well be right in saying that TDs will be more cautious in the future. If such caution eliminates the aggressive treatment of witnesses and the media grandstanding by PAC members, perhaps we will see a return to the excellent work of this committee seen in previous decades, and that would be no bad thing. – Yours, etc,
BRIAN KELLEHER,
Ballinteer,
Dublin 16.
Sir, – If our elected representatives can no longer perform their duties freely because they are inhibited by fear of how a judge may later assess their actions, we must doubt whether Ireland is still a democracy. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL
WILLIAMS,
Dublin 6.