Legislation providing for five new forms of inquiries that can be carried out by Oireachtas committees will "enshrine very clearly" protections against bias by any committee member, Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin has said.
The Government yesterday announced five new forms of inquiry that can be carried out by Oireachtas committees without breaching the severe restrictions imposed on parliamentary investigations by the Abbeylara judgment.
Mr Howlin got Government approval at yesterday’s Cabinet meeting to draft the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Bill, 2012.
In October 2011 a proposed constitutional amendment to give Oireachtas committees greater powers of inquiry was defeated in a referendum.
The change was designed to address a Supreme Court ruling that parliamentary inquiries could not make findings of culpability against an individual who was not a TD or Senator.
The legislation will include a number of new departures, including two new types of inquiry that will deal with the process to impeach judges and presidents, as well as dealing with the conduct of TDs and Senators.
These new forms of inquiry will address some of the ambiguities and flaws associated with the impeachment process related to former Circuit Court judge Brian Curtin and with hearings by an Oireachtas committee into the conduct of former senator Ivor Callely.
Two different types of inquiry have been included that will not run foul of the Abbeylara judgment.
The first is an “inquire, record and report” inquiry, which allows a committee to record and report evidence but only make findings of fact that are uncontested.
The other, described as a “forward-looking” inquiry, will be empowered to make findings of fact in the context of investigations relating to the legislative functions of the Oireachtas.
It will allow an Oireachtas committee to hold an inquiry into the conduct of a current government but this form of inquiry will not allow historical inquiries.
An investigation into the government’s handling of the banking crisis from 2008 could not be held under this heading.
There has been a tug-of-war between two committees, the Public Accounts Committee and the Finance Committee, over which should hold the banking inquiry.
Mr Howlin’s senior officials yesterday said that the decision would not be a decision for the Minister but for the Oireachtas. Indeed, Mr Howlin yesterday emphasised the Bill restoring fuller powers to parliament.
Reaction to the draft Bill was mixed. Fianna Fail’s Sean Fleming dismissed it as a “cobbled together Plan B after Plan A was defeated”.
Mr Howlin said today that the people “in their own wisdom” had decided not to strengthen the powers of the Oireachtas in this area in last year’s referendum.
He said there would be “very careful balances” required and that these had been set out in the draft Bill.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, he said the heads of the Bill “enshrine very clearly protections against bias”.
“If members have made statements in relation to any individual or any set of circumstances that would objectively make them unsuitable to have an impartial inquiry they would have to exclude themselves from it. That’s all set out very clearly.”
Mr Howlin said he had wanted to give the authority back to the Oireachtas itself so that inquiries did not have a “genesis” of control in the executive, but rather in the Houses.
On the referendum result, Mr Howlin insisted it had been the people who had determined the outcome.
“You cannot say to people that their views are not the best. The people have made that determination. We put a proposal to them and they said ‘no – we don’t want to give you that extra power’.”
“This is the people’s best decision. And we, as the people’s servants, are obliged to say ‘that’s exactly what we’ll do’.”