Catherine Murphy to step up pressure on KPMG
She said she will take the action if the Government fails to amend its review into the liquidated bank in the coming days. She said the furore over reporting rights and Oireachtas privilege was now distracting attention from what she said were the conflicts of interest of having KPMG Ireland effectively investigate its own dealings into IBRC.
KPMG Ireland appears to be breaking KPMG International’s own “global code of conduct” with its involvement in a politically controversial review over such public importance, said Ms Murphy.
“I have already asked KPMG Ireland to step down from this review. Clearly that hasn’t happened,” she said.
“If it is a question that KPMG Ireland won’t recuse themselves and if the Government is hell bent on continuing with this inquiry which is not credible, then it is absolutely essential and I feel I have an obligation to use whatever means I have at my disposal, including contacting KPMG International.”
Ms Murphy said she feels media and telecoms owner Denis O’Brien has tried to “bully and intimidate” her since she made claims about his financial dealings with IBRC in the Dáil last week.
“I am a representative of the people, and if I am being bullied for doing my job, by extention the people I represent are being bullied, and I do not think they will take too kindly to that,” she said.
A spokesperson for Mr O’Brien said: “Catherine Murphy has made false and misleading statements about Denis O’Brien in the Dáil, and used Dáil privilege in a shameless manner.”
Former attorney general Michael McDowell has waded into the parliamentary privilege controversy.
“Oireachtas privilege over comments, wherever published, should trump the private interests of Denis O’Brien in relation to business borrowings from a bank,” the ex-PD leader and justice minister told RTÉ.
With media outlets going to court this week to get clarity on whether they can report remarks made in the Dáil by Ms Murphy regarding Mr O’Brien’s financial arrangements with IBRC, the former attorney general said it would be “absurd” to enforce such a ban.
Former IBRC chief Alan Dukes said Mr O’Brien did not get special treatment from the bank.
The Irish Examiner reported last month that KPMG International’s global code of conduct appeared to preclude the local firm, KPMG lreland, from participating in the review.
A global spokesman for KPMG International had not responded to queries by the time of going to press. Spokesmen for KPMG Ireland were not available.
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