Dáil committee on allegations - Defiant or simply delusional?

SINN FÉIN have always insisted that their version of the past is at least as valid as any other — no matter what they imagine it to be. 

Now it is not unusual for the present to be seen through the same insistent prism, irrespective of the views of others or the weight of evidence against it.

There is a single-mindedness, almost an admirable, unwavering single-mindedness, about how the party refuses to contemplate any point of view, or policy, that does not support its agenda or endorse its behaviour. They bring single-mindedness to a new, daunting level in Irish politics. This is one of the reasons, and there are many, that the party is neck-and-neck with the main government party, Fine Gael, in the polls at 24%.

Like Humpty Dumpty in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking Glass — “When I use a word it means just what I choose it to mean, neither more nor less” — the constraints of language and its application do not seem to apply to, or bother, Sinn Féin; they certainly are not corralled by convention.

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One of the recent manifestations of that difference was when, on December 3 last, Sinn Féin deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald named, under Dáil privilege, a number of people she alleged had links to the notorious Ansbacher offshore account used to dodge tax obligations.

Ms McDonald had been provided with documentation that led to her making allegations about former senior politicians, PD founder Des O’Malley, former minister for finance and EU commissioner Ray MacSharry, former minister for justice and EU commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, and former PD leader and tánaiste Mary Harney.

Ms McDonald also claimed that Ms Harney terminated an investigation into Ansbacher accounts by an authorised officer.

Those retired politicians vehemently denied the allegations and complained to the Oireachtas Committee on Procedures and Privileges, asking that it invoke Standing Order 59 and have the allegations withdrawn and the record of the House corrected.

The committee considered the issues and its finding were leaked and published yesterday. They found Ms McDonald abused her Dáil privilege. The committee said her “utterances” in the chamber were “in the nature of being defamatory” and “an abuse of privilege”.

Ms McDonald, who is abroad on a family holiday and therefore confined to a limited statement, responded by saying she stands over her behaviour and that “the source of these allegations is a briefing dossier prepared by authorised officers who are both reputable and credible”.

“I exercised my constitutional right of privilege in good faith and in the matter of public interest,” she said.

Ms McDonald has been judged by an objective and independent group of her peers and found to have behaved poorly and incorrectly brought the character of four respected, retired politicians into question.

She, they concluded, overstepped that mark and abused her position. She has rejected the conclusions, which begs the question if Deputy McDonald is defiant or delusional.

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