SEANAD REPORT:THERE MUST be a serious question mark over the chairman of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal and over the integrity of that body, given the "extraordinary reports" in newspapers yesterday, Alex White (Lab) said.
Two senior members of the tribunal, former minister Michael O'Kennedy and former Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP)Eamonn Barnes, had indicated an intent to go to the High Court to challenge their own chairman, who apparently had made a statement that the record of a tribunal member, which had been challenged in the High Court and subsequently settled, was not at variance with the record of other tribunal members.
"We now discover that that statement is entirely false and that other senior members of the tribunal were prepared to go so far as to appear in court separately from their own chairman in order to challenge that. And they have said that their record and the record of other members of the tribunal was significantly at variance with the record of this man," Mr White said.
Mr White said the House was shortly due to debate the new immigration bill, but he did not think the current issue could await that debate. Minister for Justice Brian Lenihan should come to the House to explain the situation that had arisen in respect of this body, "in which we should have full public confidence".
David Norris (Ind) said the Minister needed to answer questions as a matter of urgency.
He noted that Ms Justice Susan Denham had stated in the Supreme Court that there was no evidence in the affidavits filed on behalf of the respondents vindicating the assertion that the record of a named individual was not at variance with that of other tribunal members.
He believed that the House should take very seriously what had been said in a letter that had been composed on behalf of some tribunal members.
It had stated that there was a widespread perception that cases were being allocated deliberately and specifically to members with a track record of refusing refugee applicants. This was from inside the tribunal. It had come from a former cabinet member and a former DPP, among others.
Mr Norris said he thought the most serious aspect of this was that there was a proposal in the immigration bill that the chairman of the Refugee Appeals Tribunal would automatically become the chairman of the next tribunal. "Now, I think that is astonishing . . . I think the House is entitled to an explanation."
Paul Coghlan (FG) said they had suspected "fishy business, if I may say so, for quite a while, and maybe, a number of decisions were rather suspect".
Acting Seanad leader Dan Boyle (GP) said he hoped that when the Immigration and Residency Bill came to be debated, an opportunity would be taken to express the concern that had already been voiced.
Meanwhile, the Fianna Fáil chairman of an Oireachtas committee was accused of sending "a very disturbing letter" to The Irish Timesundermining RTÉ's reporting of the Mahon tribunal.
"I wonder is there any other western democracy where the chairman of the communications committee would write this type of letter to a national newspaper?" asked Frances Fitzgerald, Fine Gael leader in the House.
The views expressed in the letter amounted to an interference in the freedom of the media. She noted that the author, John Cregan TD, had said that he was writing as chairman of the Oireachtas communications committee.
He had stated that RTÉ's obsession with the Mahon tribunal was an issue of extreme concern to him and to many fellow Oireachtas members. She wondered if there had been any discussion at the committee in relation to the sending of the letter to The Irish Times.
She was concerned that the chairman should set out to tell the national broadcaster how to respond to issues of the day.