DÁIL PRIVILEGE ROW: McDonald has no plans to apologise

Mary Lou McDonald has no plans to apologise for claiming that named politicians held offshore Ansbacher accounts to avoid tax.

In light of the Catherine Murphy saga, the Sinn Féin deputy leader said she will instead appeal a ruling against her by the Dáil’s protocol watchdog.

Ms McDonald alleged that an “extremely dangerous” situation is developing where people are trying to “shut down” politicians in the Oireachtas.

In December, Ms McDonald, under Dáil privilege, named six individuals who held Ansbacher accounts and were listed in a dossier of alleged tax evasion.

All individuals named have refuted the allegations, while in February the Oireachtas Committee on Procedure and Privileges ruled that the Sinn Féin TD abused Dáil privilege.

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS

Ms McDonald said it is “wholly inadequate” that she was disciplined by the committee for raising the point.

Ms McDonald said she is standing over her right to have made the comments “in good faith”. They were based on files drawn up by civil servant Gerard Ryan.

“Rather than asserting Dáil privilege some people are more interested in sanctions and trying to shut TDs down from the inside,” said Ms McDonald.

“I have been given no basis, no rationale for it [sanctions include deletion of the names from the Dáil record, and asking Ms McDonald to withdraw the claims],” she said, adding that she will seek to appeal the CPP ruling despite the fact “so far there isn’t actually a right of appeal”.

Clarity at last. Now let's have a full, transparent and credible investigation of Siteserv and other IBRC transactions. #redacted

— Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) June 2, 2015

While the case is similar to Ms Murphy’s given the fact that both remarks were made under Dáil privilege, it has been noted in recent days that Ms McDonald’s situation differs as she suffered no censor from outside the Oireachtas and that her comments — and the response — were fully reported.

Meanwhile, Ms Murphy said while yesterday’s High Court ruling is welcome, the focus now must turn to setting up “a full, competent, and independent inquiry into the wider governance issues in IBRC”.

Despite accepting the decision, Denis O’Brien last night hit out at Ms Murphy, repeating his assertion that she has “peddled” false information.

In a statement, he said Dáil privilege “should not be used for disseminating untruths by anyone for the combined motives of denigration of an individual and political advancement”.

DISCOVER MORE CONTENT LIKE THIS