Seanad debates
Thursday, 27 May 2004
Committees of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Compellability, Privileges and Immunities of Witnesses) (Amendment) Bill 2004: Committee and Remaining Stages.
4:00 am
Joe O'Toole (Independent)
I raised a question to which there is clearly no answer. We must have integrity in our process. The analogy Senator McDowell and I have used is that of court proceedings. I referred to the relevant section of the Bill, which I read carefully last night, because it only refers to criminal proceedings. Can this process be challenged? It is a completely different scenario where a committee invites somebody and he or she appears. If compellability is triggered and individuals incriminate themselves under direction, is the use of the evidence within the House hearing challengeable? I do not know the answer but it is one of the issues about which I am concerned.
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