Murphy: I have nothing to fear from O’Brien

Independent TD Catherine Murphy insists she has nothing to fear from Denis O’Brien’s claims that she was given stolen documents about him.

The Kildare North deputy insisted her sources were reliable and acted in good faith.

Calling for the inquiry into IBRC deals that lost the taxpayer over €10m to be widened, Ms Murphy said she had “nothing to fear” if Mr O’Brien wanted the validity of her documents investigated as well.

She said some of the comments regarding her had been “outrageous” and “crossed the line”, and she may consider legal action.

Ms Murphy reacted cooly to a letter from Mr O’Brien in which he expressed criticism of her Dáil comments regarding his business affairs.

“The information I received came to me in good faith,” she said. “I double checked my sources before I made my statement in the Dáil.”

Ms Murphy made the remarks about Mr O’Brien’s business arrangements with IBRC while proposing legislation to give the State’s financial watchdog the powers to investigate IBRC deals.

Ms Murphy feels that a review into the sale of Siteserv to a company controlled by Mr O’Brien and other major loss-making deals should not be carried out by KPMG because the firm is open to the perception of a conflict of interest as it acted in the Siteserv deal.

In the letter to Ms Murphy, Mr O’Brien wrote: “While I respect your entitlement to freedom of expression, I am very disappointed that, based on information which you know to have been stolen, you made seriously accusatory statements in the Dáil which are materially inaccurate and in spite of acknowledging the terms of an injunction granted by the courts of the State you knowingly breached that injunction on the grounds that your interpretation of the public interest is to be favoured over the determination of where the balance of the public interest lay by the High Court.”

Fianna Fáil called for the Oireachtas legal counsel to join with actions by media groups to get the temporary injunction covering the issues raised by Ms Murphy in the Dáil overturned.

Party leader Micheál Martin accused Mr O’Brien of trying to intimidate Ms Murphy, stating that the country was in “dangerous territory”.

Labour senator John Whelan warned of a “contagion of censorship”.

Socialist TD Joe Higgins expressed concern that Mr O’Brien was trying to “silence” the media groups he did not own.

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS