The chief executive of Web Summit, Paddy Cosgrave, has written to Dáil authorities saying his reputation has been “adversely affected” by remarks made in the Dáil by Tánaiste Micheál Martin.
It comes after Mr Martin described investigative website The Ditch as “a political organisation” that wants to attack and undermine confidence in the Government and he said he did not see the website as an “independent media platform at all”.
His remarks came amid Opposition questions related to a controversy surrounding Fianna Fáil junior minister Niall Collins. Mr Collins has been the subject of a series of stories by The Ditch raising questions about his wife’s purchase of a property from Limerick County Council in 2008.
He was part of a local area committee of the council that recommended disposal of the property in 2007 when he was a member of the local authority.
Mr Collins has insisted “no law was broken” and pointed out that he was not a member of the council when it took the ultimate decision to sell the land to his wife who was the highest bidder in an open market sale.
In his Dáil remarks last week Mr Martin said The Ditch was partly funded by Mr Cosgrave while another individual, Chay Bowes, was a founding member of the website. He said both were political opponents of the Government and Mr Martin said he would “love to know who’s funding The Ditch in its entirety”.
[ Web Summit funding of €1m for The Ditch as editor rejects ‘anti-government’ tagOpens in new window ]
The Fianna Fáil leader said what really alarmed him was that the Russian embassy in Ireland had praised Mr Bowes with a tweet on an essay he had written “blaming the West for the war in Ukraine”. He said Mr Bowes had also been on RT India on April 9th where a caption referred to him as “Russia Today correspondent”.
“That’s what’s behind The Ditch lads,” the Tánaiste said.
In a tweet on Wednesday, Mr Cosgrave accused Mr Martin of a breach of Dáil Standing Order 71 and said he sent a submission to the Clerk of the Dáil on the matter.
Standing Order 71 relates to Dáil privilege and a person who is of the opinion that they have been adversely affected by an utterance in the Dáil can make a submission to the Clerk within six weeks of the remarks.
Mr Cosgrave posted screen grabs of his submission, saying Mr Martin claimed that he was “backing and/or funding a political organisation whose agenda is to take down the Government”.
Mr Cosgrave wrote: “It can be reasonably inferred from the words used that he [Mr Martin] was suggesting that I am backing and/or funding a media and/or political organisation that is co-funded and/or backed by the Russian government.”
Mr Cosgrave added: “For the avoidance of doubt, all of the above claims and/or suggestions made by Deputy Martin are entirely false.”
He also said that: “At no point during the course of the above utterances did the Ceann Comhairle intervene or warn Deputy Martin that he was abusing Dáil privilege and/or in breach of Dáil standing orders.”
He concluded the submission saying: “I await your response in due course.”
Asked about Mr Cosgrave’s submission, an Oireachtas statement said: “These matters are governed by paragraphs (3) and (4) of Standing Order 71.
“Under paragraph (3), the Clerk, where he receives a submission, furnishes that submission to the Ceann Comhairle. Under paragraph (4), the Ceann Comhairle determines the action to be taken on the submission – and may decide to refer it to CPPO [Committee on Parliamentary Privileges and Oversight] for consideration.”
The Oireachtas said that matters concerning the CPPO were confidential.
