Paul Murphy takes High Court case to block super junior ministers from Cabinet meetings

Paul Murphy has launched a High Court case seeking to prevent super junior ministers from attending Cabinet meetings and receiving extra allowances

Paul Murphy holding a copy of the Irish Constitution outside Leinster House today. Picture: Leah Farrell / © RollingNews.ie

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy said he has initiated a plenary action seeking an injunction to prevent super junior ministers from attending Cabinet meetings and being paid additional allowances.

Mr Murphy said the matter is extremely urgent as the super junior ministers attended Cabinet meetings this morning.

"They are junior ministers who act as senior ministers in effectively every single way. They get extra allowances. They bring memos to Cabinet. They sit at all Cabinet meeting and participate in all the discussions," Mr Murphy said.

"The constitution is very, very clear where it says the Government shall consist of not less than seven and not more than 15 members."

A separate legal challenge is currently being taken by Sinn Féin TD Pa Daly, in which he alleges the appointment of super junior ministers is "anti-democratic."

Mr Murphy said his case is complementary to Mr Daly's but by taking plenary action, his case will include oral evidence and, "crucially," the capacity to call witnesses.

The Dublin TD said that there are "a number of people" he would like to call as witnesses to explain where the role of super junior ministers came from and the rationale behind it.

When asked whether Mr Varadkar would be one of those people, Mr Murphy said it "sounds like a good idea".

Speaking on Wednesday, Mr Murphy said the former Fine Gael leader "gave the game away" recently when he wrote in The Sunday Times that the addition of super junior ministers was created "to get around the rule of 15."

"This speaks volumes about the approach of the government, which is to say, rules are not for us, they are for you and we will simply try to get around those rules," said Mr Murphy.

He said that he had already been considering taking a case in relation to the super junior ministers before Mr Varadkar's article but that it had "copper-fastened it for us."

"Now we have it in writing from a former taoiseach that effectively there is no distinction between super juniors and full ministers."

Mr Murphy said consideration is being given to seeking an early injunction or an interlocutory injunction while waiting for a substantive hearing.