Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 7 November 2019

Public Accounts Committee

Business of Committee

9:00 am

Photo of Marc MacSharryMarc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail)
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In the brief discussion we had the last day when this matter arose in Deputy Kelly's absence, I made many similar points. At best, we are seeing the politically opportunistic use of legislation that was not intended for that purpose. At worst, and as with actions we saw in the Dáil during the week, through the use of articles of the Constitution on money messages, it defines life in a dictatorship disguised as a democracy. I do not know what actions are open to us as a committee, but the system is all-powerful. The Office of the Attorney General is effectively the commander-in-chief in respect of all matters of definition. The intended integrity of elected representatives and the institutions within the Oireachtas itself - committees, the Dáil, the Seanad and everything else - are being undermined hand over fist as a result of legal advices, be they from the Attorney General's office or, sometimes, the Office of Parliamentary Legal Advisers, OPLA, which sees the system as its client rather than the messengers of the people, those being, the elected representatives who try to raise these issues and ensure that information is made available to the public regarding the amounts of money paid to individuals, companies or whatever on their behalf or who exercise the will of the people through the tools available to us.

The money message issue, which is not the business of this committee this week per se, and the issue before us, which can only be described at best as the politically opportunistic use of GDPR, are deplorable and need to stop immediately.