Enda’s failure to speak up for parliamentary privilege

The Taoiseach was sadly silent on the legal attempt to prevent Denis O’Brien’s finances being discussed in the Dáil, and was remiss in not defending TDs’ democratic right, writes Shaun Connolly

But, unfortunately, just like Alice when she went Through The Looking Glass, the Taoiseach had a different grasp on reality to everyone else.

Blinking back into the sunshine after a week seemingly hiding out in his rabbit hole, until the threat to parliamentary privilege had passed, Mr Kenny haughtily dismissed claims he had not done his bit to defend democracy. He insisted calls for him to take a stand on the freedom of TDs to speak out without fear of censorship were just the ramblings of “hysteria”.

IN one of his Enda in Wonderland moments, Mr Kenny accurately summed-up the Denis O’Brien situation when he announced the country had been gripped by hysteria.

The dictionary defines ‘hysteria’ as: “Any frenzied emotional state, especially of laughter or crying,” and if you were not crying at some of the bizarre twists this week in the O’Brien-IBRC saga, there was certainly reason to have an ironic laugh.

There was that wonderful moment in the High Court, on Tuesday, when counsel for O’Brien insisted it had never been the billionaire tycoon’s intention to restrict what deputies can say in the Dail, and that he believed “it is only right” that the media reports what they say.

Oh, that’s confusing. What on Earth could have prevented most of the mainstream media relaying Independent TD Catherine Murphy’s comments about Mr O’Brien in the Dáil for four days, then? Oh, that’s right, it was the legal threats from Mr O’Brien.

“A spectacular climbdown,” remarked counsel for RTÉ, as he noted the abrupt change of heart, branding it a bit “rich”. Mr O’Brien is, of course, more than a bit rich; he’s absolutely loaded. Which is why his alleged rates of interest with nationalised bank, IBRC, rated such interest from Ms Murphy.

The Kildare North TD is no stunt merchant or grand-stander — not like so many of her colleagues in the Dáil — and has a well-won reputation for doggedness, diligence and responsibility, so to hear her demonised by Mr O’Brien, and his mouthpieces, as someone who “peddles lies” on the back of stolen documents just does not fit with the high regard in which she is held across the political spectrum.

Mr O’Brien claims he is a private citizen and his banking affairs are of concern to no-one but himself and the bank. Ms Murphy counters that, as his bank is formed from the wreckage of Anglo, for which the hard-pressed taxpayer has taken a multi-billion euro hit, her allegations that the businessman received an interest rate of 1.25% from IBRC, when 7.5% could have applied — which she claims involves a sum of €500m — make it a public matter.

Mr O’Brien dismisses the claims as “lies”; but if they are the result of “stolen” and “altered” documents, as he alleges, why has no-one gone to the gardaí, instead of rushing for reporting restrictions? Mr O’Brien’s spokesperson says he cannot tell us why. ‘Curiouser and curiouser’, indeed, as Alice may have observed.

Ms Murphy made the allegations as she attempted to introduce a bill that would give the State’s financial watchdog, the Comptroller and Auditor General, new powers. These would enable him to investigate the goings-on at IBRC, notably the sale of a firm called Siteserv to a company controlled by Mr O’Brien, a division of which then went on to win a lucrative contract to supply meters for Irish water.

Showing typical grip on the situation, Mr Kenny had initially suggested the C&AG carry out the probe, when the controversy first blew out into the open, in April, only to be politely told the watchdog did not have the remit to do so.

This then led the Taoiseach and Minister for Finance, Michael Noonan, to hit on the brilliant wheeze of pushing the whole affair into the long grass. They did this by getting people from KMPG, the firm who had taken part in the Siteserv deal, to review whether anything untoward had taken place in the deal.

When it was pointed out that this might lead to the tiniest bit of a potential conflict of interest, they then appointed an ex-judge to watch out for conflicts of interest, thus inadvertently underlining the inappropriateness of the whole situation. Mr Noonan, after repeatedly stonewalling Ms Murphy’s persistent questioning on Siteserv, then rubbished calls for a proper inquiry into the escalating affair, as he denied attempting to keep a lid on the IBRC deal. Instead, he ridiculed Ms Murphy by suggesting the delay in substantive answers from him was because she had not been asking the right questions.

But, then, suddenly, Mr Noonan and his officials did a bit of an office tidy-up at the Finance Department and, amazingly, found a stash of “misplaced” documents, which forced the Minister to apologise to Fianna Fail leader, Micheál Martin, for giving him false information in the Dail.

These “misplaced” documents just happened to emerge on the same day the Government finally did what it should have done months ago, and gave into pressure to hold a proper investigation into the goings-on at IBRC.

Mr Noonan said this happening at exactly the same time the “misplaced” documents were found was purely “coincidence”. The “misplaced” documents throw up a number of explosive new questions for the Government, but the belated switch to a full-blown investigation means we are very unlikely to get the answers this side of the general election.

The probe will now look at the issue of “the interest rates, or any extension to interest rates, or any periods for re-payments, that were given on preferential terms” and which saw clients pay €4m less than they would have under usual rates. It will also probe allegations of “unusual” share fluctuations in Siteserv in the months before the sale.

After heroically resisting the “hysteria” to recall the Dáil to discuss what many regarded as a constitutional crisis — the electorate was banned from hearing what an elected representative had said in the national parliament — Mr Kenny is to allow four hours of debate on the IBRC inquiry on Tuesday.

Given that the Dáil has only sat for 18 of the past 70 days, and even then was shut down for long periods on those days, because the Government gave it nothing to debate, perhaps a tad more time could have been found to discuss such an important, multi-layered subject? Mr Kenny considers himself a guardian of the Dáil and a believer in transparency. In that regard, he is much like the Red Queen in Wonderland, when she mused: “Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.”