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LAST UPDATE | 16 Sep 2021
SINN FÉIN TD Matt Carthy abused parliamentary privilege to make an accusation against another member of the Dáil, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said.
Speaking under privilege during a Dáil debate yesterday, Carthy accused Minister Simon Harris of leaking from Cabinet about plans to appoint Katherine Zappone as a special envoy to the UN.
A spokesperson for Minister Harris said the accusation amounted to “a clear misuse of Dáil privilege” and that it was untrue.
Speaking in the House today, Varadkar said: “What happened in the Dáil was wrong.”
He said Carthy had no evidence for his claim, and was repeating a rumour under Dáil privilege.
The intention of Dáil privilege is to allow TDs to raise points in the chamber that need addressing without fear of being pursued in the courts.
Minister Harris spoke up in the House today and reiterated that what was said by Carthy was untrue, adding that he wanted the record of the Dáil corrected.
Defending his actions on RTÉ’s News at One, Carthy claimed that a “sting operation” was carried out by a junior minister to uncover who leaked from Cabinet.
When asked if he took the necessary steps to check the veracity of his claims, before speaking out in the Dáil yesterday, Carthy said he did not.
Carthy said it was “general knowledge” and he is “aware of what he said”.
He added: “I didn’t carry out the sting operation, Fine Gael did”.
He continued: “What I am saying is that Fine Gael conducted a sting operation to expose one of their own ministers.”
“I would contend my actions and my statement in the Dáil is consistent with the principle and the reason for why parliamentary privilege is in place.”
Carthy also confirmed that he did not contact the gardaí in relation to the claim he made.
When put to him that other people, other than those that sit around the Cabinet table, would have have been privy to the information about Zappone, he said that the information could have only have come from a Cabinet minister in his view.
Speaking to reporters at the TU Dublin campus in Grangegorman this afternoon, Harris described Carthy’s actions as “an extraordinary misuse, an abuse, of Dáil privilege”.
“I think what happened yesterday was an extraordinary misuse of Dáil privilege and if you didn’t already think that, and I think as any fair minded person would, I’d invite you to just listen to Deputy Carthy on RTÉ Radio One.
“It’s quite extraordinary that somebody could come to the Dáil, misuse Dáil privilege, abuse Dáil privilege.”
The minister said he would ”consider very strongly” reporting the Carthy’s Dáil comments to the Oireachtas Committee on Procedure and Privileges.
I take my responsibilities as a TD and minister very seriously, sadly some people don’t. Dáil privilege is there for a very specific reason and it is certainly not to engage in tittle-tattle, which I think is effectively what Deputy Carthy did, he said he was repeating what he believes to be general knowledge and making a very serious charge on the record of the house in the absence of my presence there because I was unavoidably absent.
Speaking alongside Harris, Finance Minister Paschal Donohoe said he was “absolutely not” aware of any Fine Gael sting operation to attempt to identify the leaker.
Harris said that he was aware of media reports which said that such an effort had taken place but that he was not part of it.
“I’m obviously aware of that, I’m not aware of being part of any so-called sting operation also I think the definition of a sting operation is an interesting concept, it usually pertains to very serious matters,” he said.
More natural forests are needed
Instead of plastic ones.
Are they talking about forests or the sterile non-native conifer plantations which blight our landscape and threaten the survival of species such as Hen Harrier? Judging the reasoning behind the groups in question I’m reckoning they’re talking about the plantations rather than native or semi-natural woodlands rich in biodiversity.
Special branch should look into this.
i think they are on leave at the moment
Its not the number of trees being planted but how bio diverse the forests are. Acres of conifer plantations do more environmental harm than good
especially to rivers, the massive amounts of sulfer put in the soil runs off and drops the Ph of rivers ruining spawning grounds
Here we go, a report to soften us up for the privitisation of Coillte, the largest single landowner in the State
Sounds about right.
That’s a great pic of lough Tay in county Wicklow. A member of the Guinness family has a wonderful house down there, although he may have passed away. I have cycled and hiked over these Wicklow mountains and really feel that they should be covered in forests. This land was covered at one time with oak and other trees. The govt needs to get the finger out and start to increase Irish woodlands. If you leave the land alone the trees will come back naturally.
Jim Jameson
Why would you need to be softened up for a Government sale of the collet harvesting rights? Have you seen the appalling Annual Reports over the last few years?
In 2011 they had sales of 259 m and only managed a profit of 19.9m and this is with free land a story wen a massive one million acres.
Worse than this their pension fund has a shortfall of nearly a hundred million Euro. How do you manage that trick with just one thousand employees? The answer is simple ……..make it a publicly owned enterprise and they’ll just milk it for all it’s worth.
See the harvesting rights for up to two billion and let someone else do the real job of managing the business as that clearly hasn’t been done for some time.
We get to keep the land. We get money for new investment in the economy and the workers get their pension funds fixed.
With proper management exports will increase and the State will accrue further profit taxes.
Simple.
….sell the harvesting rights….. Mea culpa
have your say