Widow of former CIÉ chief sues Oireachtas for legal costs
The case challenges the right of TDs who were members of a Dáil committee to adjudicate on the issue, and seeks legal costs from the State believed to be worth anything between €300,000 and €400,000.
TDs, Senators and former deputies on the Dáil committee inquiring into the €45m overrun in CIÉ's mini-CTC signalling system include Martin Brady, Jim Higgins, Austin Currie, Sean Doherty, Pat Rabbitte and Noel O'Flynn. The suit also names Finance Minister Charlie McCreevy and Attorney General Rory Brady.
All the elected representatives are indemnified by the Oireachtas.
The case has important implications for over 100 other Oireachtas committees witnesses, by deciding whether those who appear before an investigation are entitled to legal fees. It will come to the High Court on Tuesday.
The Dáil committee's investigations faced a legal challenge from Noreen McDonnell whose husband John died in April 2001 after retiring from CIÉ in November 2001, but it was rejected by the Supreme Court.
Lawyers for Ms McDonnell said the inquiry's restrictions on questioning of witnesses, and its refusal to provide legal costs, seriously prejudiced her family's efforts to protect her late husband's good name and reputation.
His wife also claimed the manner in which the hearings were conducted was unfair, unjust and in contravention of the principles of natural and constitutional justice.
The investigation was set up to find out why the cost of an incomplete rail signalling project rose to more than €64m from €18m. The inquiry sub-committee was nearing the end of its public sessions when the hearings were suspended indefinitely on Tuesday, after a High Court ruling on an Oireachtas examination of the Abbeylara incident constrained the scope of all parliamentary inquiries. It said such committees could not make "findings of fact or expressions of opinion" that damaged the good name of citizens who are not TDs or Senators.
At least 100 witnesses who were involved in the inquiry could be entitled to legal fees if Ms McDonnell's case is successful.
