Mary Lou McDonald may face censure motion

Sinn Féin’s Mary Lou McDonald will likely only face a motion of censure for abusing Dáil privilege and alleging named individuals were evading tax, says the Government’s chief whip.

Paul Kehoe said the Opposition TD would not face a spell of absence from the chamber nor any harsher sanction and would only be penalised with what is allowed under the current Dáil regulations. His comments came as Ms McDonald rejected a finding by an Oireachtas committee that she abused Dáil privilege and named several former politicians as evading tax through offshore accounts.

The Committee on Procedure and Privileges is expected to discuss its findings against Ms McDonald next week and a motion of censure could be later agreed against her. However, this would effectively only be a verbal warning voted on and announced in the chamber.

Mr Kehoe said he had written to the committee, which he also sits on, to ask how the motion could be progressed. However, he also told the Irish Examiner that Ms McDonald was likely to face little else beyond this.

The Wexford Fine Gael TD said it needed to be clarified if the committee could agree the motion or if it needed to be party-led. “I don’t think there is anything else that can be done with [the Dáil’s] standing orders,” he said.

Ms McDonald yesterday defended her Dáil comments, made in December, and refused to retract them or apologise. She had read the names of several former high-profile ministers into the Dáil record, after they were cited by a civil servant whistleblower in a secret report on offshore accounts. The individuals strenuously deny the claims.

“I absolutely refute any suggestion that I abused Dáil privilege. I have said from the word go that I exercised in a very mindful, thoughtful and responsible way the Dáil privilege afforded to me within the Constitution.

“I did so because there are a number of issues contained in a dossier produced by an authorised officer that raise issues of the most grave public concern,” she said.

The Dublin TD said she wanted the facts fully established around allegations that the former politicians had offshore accounts and had asked Taoiseach Enda Kenny to set up an inquiry.

Mr Kenny’s spokesman last night refused to comment but said authorities were probing the whistleblower’s claims about offshore accounts.

He said: “Mary Lou was found to have abused her privilege and should reflect before trying to deflect from her own failure on the matter. The [Garda] fraud squad have a file and it is for relevant authorities to make a decision.”

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