Tag: bertie ahern

High Court judgment unlikely to have significant impact on work of tribunal

8th May 2008

Four Courts, DublinLabour always believed that the former Taoiseach’s High Court action challenging the Mahon Tribunal’s right to question him about certain statements he made in the Dail was more about delaying the work of the Tribunal than upholding the constitutional right to privilege of members of the Oireachtas.

The tactic worked in terms of delaying the Tribunal from questioning him on matters of relevant public interest. However, it could not prevent his exit from office much earlier than he had planned, which was largely due to the determination of Labour and other opposition parties to hold him to account politically.

At the time the action was initiated we acknowledged that there were serious legal and constitutional issues surrounding the privilege of members of the Oireachtas. A number of the issues raised by Mr. Ahern’s legal team were conceded by the Tribunal early in the hearing. The High Court judgement on the outstanding matters will now have to be studied to establish the extent to which the questions relating to privilege have now been further clarified.

Given that the Tribunal has access to its own information and the fact that many of the statements made by the Taoiseach in the Dail were also repeated outside, I do not believe that this judgment will have a significant impact on the Tribunal’s further inquiries into Mr. Ahern’s financial affairs.

‘No more curtain calls’

8th May 2008

Seanad ChamberThere have been many congratulations for the former Taoiseach and we now have had a month of praise and thanksgiving. Much of it has been deserved, some of it less so, and some of it has been bordering on the nauseating. It is now time to get down to business. I wondered at one stage over the last few weeks whether the former Taoiseach would outdo Luciano Pavarotti, who has the world record of 165 curtain calls in a single performance. The former Taoiseach went close to that record.

While it is a matter for debate whether this is a new Government, it is an opportune moment for us to have that wider discussion. I ask the Leader to arrange for the new Taoiseach to come into this House and to set out his ideas, his proposals and his vision for the post-Celtic tiger Ireland into which we are facing. Before we can get down to the important debates with individual Ministers, I would echo the call to bring in the Taoiseach to the Seanad for that type of debate. We can then grapple with the challenges that exist in the economy, such as the deepening inequalities that have characterised the last decade of growth, the spectacle of 190,000 children at risk of poverty in a country with such enormous wealth held by so few people.

If we had that debate, we could consider the sort of public service we want to have in this country, how we fund it, how we use the taxation system in order to bring about a fairer society, and whether we want one health service for the well off and one for everybody else. I would like to hear the Taoiseach set out his stall on these issues in this House. The Opposition parties are also under a duty to put forward their ideas and their vision, and this would provide an excellent opportunity to do that. I join with my colleagues in congratulating the new Taoiseach, but I hope we get down to business today. I would welcome the opportunity to have such a debate at the earliest possible occasion.