IBRC row raises Dáil procedure questions

Ceann Comhairle Sean Barrett has been asked to address concerns that the Dáil has been undermined after incomplete parliamentary answers were given about IBRC.

Fianna Fáil party whip Seán Ó Fearghaíl wrote to Mr Barrett last Friday asking him to examine comments about answering parliamentary questions by junior finance minister Simon Harris.

Mr Harris, speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland the previous day, had outlined the Coalition’s decision to establish a full inquiry into certain transactions at IBRC, formerly Anglo Irish Bank. The minister was also asked about an “administrative oversight” which saw missing files on an IBRC board meeting suddenly found.

Mr Ó Fearghaíl told the Ceann Comhairle in his letter: “On that programme, Minister Harris seemed to suggest that a full and complete answer to Parliamentary Questions is now not assured unless the TD submitting the question now also accompanies the parliamentary question with a Freedom of Information [FOI] application.”

Mr Harris had told the programme that Michael Noonan, the finance minister, had answered all questions in the Dáil on IBRC “as soon as the information was sought by way of freedom of information”.

However, Mr Ó Fearghaíl says these comments, from a junior minister, confirm suggestions that TDs may be denied information unless they follow up their parliamentary queries with FOIs, as was the case with Catherine Murphy, the Independent TD who has led the questioning about IBRC’s transactions.

Mr Ó Fearghaíl said: “The clear message from this statement appears to be that parliamentary accountability and the parliamentary questions which guard and enhance that accountability now takes second place to Freedom of Information requests.

“If this is the case, it would be a significant undermining of our national parliament in how it holds the Government to account and makes something of a mockery of ministerial question time.

“On this matter, I would like to formally ask you, as Ceann Comhairle, whether Minister Harris’s assertion reflects the thinking of your office and if we should now expect that a full and complete answer to parliamentary questions are not to be expected unless a Freedom of Information request is also made.”

Mr Barrett is expected to answer the query this week.

Mr Harris, in that interview, denied information was being kept secret.

The Dáil will debate the commission of inquiry into the IBRC transactions and activities tomorrow, up until midnight. Time may also be allotted for the debate on Wednesday.

Mr Noonan will meet Opposition TDs and party leaders this evening amid calls for its scope to be widened and for parts or all of the inquiry to be wrapped up by the end of October.

Mr Noonan faces pressure to amend the terms for the probe, so it covers the period after IBRC went into liquidation in February 2013, including any correspondence between businessman Denis O’Brien and liquidator Kieran Wallace of KPMG over Mr O’Brien’s loans.