THE OMBUDSMAN Emily O’Reilly has said that the Dáil and Seanad have been sidelined and are no longer in a position to hold the Government to account.
In the course of a speech on governance yesterday, Ms O’Reilly mounted a sharp criticism of the Irish model which she argued has allowed the Government to tighten its grip and control on an Oireachtas which was now and danger of being a “charade”.
Speaking at the conference at the Institute of Public Administration in Dublin, Ms O’Reilly said: “Unfortunately, the model of government set out in the Irish Constitution has become more of a fiction than a reality.
“In practice, the Dáil is controlled very firmly by the Government parties.
“For all practical purposes, parliament in Ireland has been side-lined and is no longer in a position to hold the executive to account,” she said.
Ms O’Reilly referred to what she viewed as the unsatisfactory outcome of her dispute with the Department of Agriculture over her report on the controversial Lost at Sea scheme as the basis for the speech.
The scheme, devised by former minister for the marine Frank Fahey, paid out €2.8 million in grants for replacement capacity for six fishing vessels that had been lost at sea.
Some 75 per cent of the grant for capacity was assigned to two constituents of Mr Fahey in Galway West.
A complaint was made by a Donegal family, the Byrnes, which had lost family members and three other crew members at sea. That claim was rejected on the grounds that they had missed the deadline. Ms O’Reilly criticised the scheme for, inter alia, not having advertised extensively. She recommended that the family be awarded almost €250,000 in compensation.
However, the report was rejected by the department, the second time such a report has been turned down in the 26-year history of the Ombudsman’s office. Ms O’Reilly then laid the report before the Oireachtas, asking TDs and Senators to adjudge the dispute between her and the department. It was discussed in the Dáil in February, but Opposition motions to have it heard by the Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture and Fisheries were defeated in the Dáil, Seanad and at committee, consecutively.
Ms O’Reilly yesterday asserted that she had done with the report and her role precisely what the Financial Regulator was accused of not doing in his. And yet, the result was that her report was ignored by Government.
She accepted that her reports were not legally binding but argued that there was no need for them to be as they should be viewed as highly persuasive and coming from a person of integrity and independence. Otherwise, she said, a government “will be seen acting as a judge in its own case.”
Ms O’Reilly warned of the inherent dangers of parliament becoming a charade.
“Parliamentarians have in many cases lost the sense of parliament as an independent entity acting in the public interest,” she said.
She said the situation of a worsening parliamentary deficit could no longer be ignored.
Taoiseach Brian Cowen denied that the Government had not observed good governance in the matter. Responding to Labour leader Eamon Gilmore in the Dáil, he said that he was satisfied that the Oireachtas had fulfilled its responsibilities to deal with the report. “Both the Dáil and the Seanad have dealt with it,” he said.
Fine Gael agriculture spokesman Micheal Creed and fisheries spokesman Tom Sheahan issued a statement asking what the Government feared from a hearing at committee. Mr Creed said: “The Taoiseach must explain why, as the Ombudsman says, he is allowing parliament to be side-lined on this issue?”