Brendan Ryan (Labour)

Is this usual in legislation setting up State agencies or is it new? I have not seen it written down before. I have seen a letter from the Department of Finance regarding a colleague in the Dáil who was indemnified by the State when suing in case the costs were awarded against him. Only one paragraph of the letter dealt with indemnification. Most of it warned the rest of us not to assume for one second that if we, in our capacity as members of Oireachtas committees, sued anybody the Department of Finance was going to pick up the bill. It is unusual that written into this legislation is a statement categorically assuring people that they would be indemnified against all claims. It may be typical but I have gone through over 20 years of legislation and have not come across it before.