Gilmore denies he was unfair to ex-ceann comhairle

LABOUR LEADER Eamon Gilmore has told the Dáil he was not unfair to former ceann comhairle John O’Donoghue, and did not deny him a constitutional right of reply in the controversy surrounding his expenses.

Mr Gilmore defended his position after he said in the Dáil last week that Mr O’Donoghue’s position was “no longer tenable”.

He said: “I regret what I had to do last week”, but added “I believe I had an obligation no matter how unpleasant it may have been and whatever the consequences may have been. I believe I had a duty to do that. I carried out that duty, and I believed I did so fairly.”

The Labour leader was responding to remarks by Mr O’Donoghue in his resignation speech yesterday. Mr O’Donoghue had said he was denied the opportunity to put his case “by some members of this House who decided to act without giving me a hearing”, and denied him his constitutional right of reply.

The former ceann comhairle also said “patience in aid of fairness gave way, alas, to impatience to surf the political wave of competitive outrage. Lest it be said that the failure to give me a chance to defend myself has somehow embittered me, I want to acknowledge that the failure to afford me a right to be fairly heard arises from weakness rather than malice.”

However, Mr Gilmore said the “primary constitutional function” of TDs was “to represent the people who sent us here, and to express on the floor of our national parliament their opinions, their sentiments and their concerns”.

He said the expenses issue was a “public matter that was being debated on the airwaves and discussed in public”.

“We should remember that if the floor of this House is not to be the forum where we articulate the public’s views, concerns and, at times, anger, then we will be failing in that primary constitutional duty, undermining the position of this House and the role of parliamentary democracy”.

Opening his remarks, the Labour leader acknowledged “the fairness with which Deputy O’Donoghue carried out his functions as ceann comhairle”, but he wanted to deal with some of the things “in his valedictory address less they go unchallenged”.

Mr Gilmore said “in the course of that address he effectively accused me of denying him fairness and of denying him a constitutional right of reply. I did neither.”

He said from the beginning of the expenses controversy he had refrained from public comment out of respect for the office of Ceann Comhairle.

Mr Gilmore “accepted the apology he gave to the House for the expenditures he incurred while a Minister. When I did intervene in the controversy, last Sunday week, I acknowledged, first, Deputy O’Donoghue’s fairness in the conduct of his duties as ceann comhairle, and, second, that there are legitimate expenditures associated with the conduct of that and of any other office.”

He added” “I also sought to have the issue dealt with on an all-party basis. I did not deny him the right to address and make his case to the House. What I did not agree with was that the appropriate forum for dealing with this matter was an in-house committee of this House which meets in private.”