Howlin sorry for his ‘cack-handed’ criticism of judge

PUBLIC Expenditure Minister Brendan Howlin has apologised to Bryan McMahon, chairman of the Referendum Commission, for criticising the advice the retired judge issued to the public on the failed Oireachtas inquiries referendum.

Mr Howlin said he had not intended to slight Mr McMahon. “If he feels in any way that there was a slight, then I unreservedly give such an apology,” Mr Howlin told RTÉ Radio yesterday.

“It was not my intention to slight them [the commission] in any way. If that is their view... I unreservedly apologise for that.”

It was widely perceived that Mr Howlin was trying to shift the blame for the referendum’s defeat when he criticised the judge over the weekend for causing confusion among voters.

The commission was the independent body established under law to explain the subject matter of last week’s referendum proposals.

The purpose of the Oireachtas inquiries referendum was to give Dáil and Seanad committees enhanced powers of investigation.

But “No” campaigners argued that the wording of the referendum proposal threatened to give far too much power to the Oireachtas and curtail citizens’ ability to protect their rights in court.

Mr McMahon, in his role as chairman of the independent commission, said during the campaign that it was “not possible to state definitively what role, if any, the courts would have in reviewing the procedures adopted” by the Oireachtas if the referendum was passed.

After the referendum crashed to defeat over the weekend, Mr Howlin criticised these remarks, saying they had caused voters to hesitate on the issue.

But the commission immediately shot back, saying Mr McMahon had been speaking for the body as a whole.

It said: “The commission is absolutely satisfied as to the accuracy and reliability of this statement and is satisfied that it carried out its duty with the independence and neutrality required by law.”

Mr Howlin sought to defuse the row by admitting that his weekend comments were “cack-handed”.

“I regret that answers I gave to questions during the count were seen to be critical of the commission,” he said. “I was simply trying, in obviously a cack-handed way, to answer the question of what were the issues that led to a ‘No’ vote.”

Mr Howlin said the country needs the Referendum Commission as an independent voice to weigh, parse and analyse complicated referendum matters and give impartial advice.

“That’s what they did and it was never my intention and isn’t my intention to indicate in any way that they acted with anything but complete probity,” he said.