Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The beef tribunal attempted to get the three Deputies to state before it the source of that information. One case involved a senior banker. The Deputies went to court to protect the identity of their sources. If the Taoiseach is using this parallel, whose identity is he going to court to protect? There is a significant difference between seeking to protect confidentiality about sources of information and seeking to protect confidentiality about sources of payments. This analogy does not hold.

I repeat that the Taoiseach's legal challenge to the tribunal has nothing to do with parliamentary privilege. It is about protecting himself. If there was an issue about parliamentary privilege, that could have been dealt with at any time by the Taoiseach and his Government by way of an amendment to the terms of reference of the tribunal. This last minute rush to the court is about playing for time, delaying the tribunal even further, adding to its costs and preventing it from asking the Taoiseach about things he said in the Dáil.

See this speech in context