Seanad debates

Thursday, 26 June 2003

Houses of the Oireachtas Commission Bill 2002: Second Stage.

 

I welcome the provision for legal advice to Members. As one who has spent the last two days in the High Court and will spend many hours in the Morris Tribunal, by virtue of the fact that I acted responsibly but outside the jurisdiction of the Houses, as did Deputy Brendan Howlin, I welcome the fact that, at long last, legal advice will be made available to Members of the Houses. We need legal advice urgently. We need the form of protection to which Members are entitled but which, in this particular case, we did not get. Deputy Howlin and I are both on a hazard in relation to our legal expenses before the High Court and the Morris Tribunal. We are on a hiding to nothing – we are, literally, at the mercy of the judges concerned in the High Court and the Morris Tribunal. Clearly, Members are under threat. A great deal will depend on the determination by the High Court now sitting and the Morris Tribunal as to what Members can or cannot freely do in discharging their functions as responsible Members of either House.

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