THE boundaries between the roles of the Dail and the courts are "crystal clear," a defence lawyer has said in response to businessman Denis O'Brien's legal action.
Michael Collins SC said the "walls" set up by the Constitution were there to "repel judicial invaders" from the Dail.
Mr Collins, who represents the Dail Committee on Procedure and Privileges, was making legal submissions on the fourth day of Mr O'Brien's High Court case against the CPP, the Clerk of the Dail and the state.
Mr Collins said the court could decide in difficult cases where the boundaries lie but they were "crystal clear" in this case.
Utterances of members of the Dail lay "very deep" in constitutional territory, he said.
"The walls set up by Article 15 (13) (of the Constitution) are not fuzzy or imprecise," he said, adding that they were "there to repel judicial invaders."
He told the court case law was "replete" with statements about the competence of the Dail in dealing with issues that may arise concerning debates within the house.
Mr O'Brien alleges comments in the Dáil by two TDs interfered with a court case he was involved in with RTÉ.
The action arises out of statements by Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy and Sinn Féin TD Pearse Doherty in the Dáil in May and June 2015 about his banking affairs.
At the time, Mr O’Brien was involved in injunction proceedings against RTÉ, to stop the station from broadcasting banking information.
But the court had heard Dáil statements made by the two TDs had the effect of putting all of the information at issue in the injunction proceedings into the public domain.
Lawyers for Mr O’Brien have claimed the TDs were “guilty of an unwarranted interference” in the RTÉ case, and had disregarded the constitutional separation of powers between parliament and the courts.
Mr O’Brien has not sued the two TDs.
Instead his action is against the Clerk of the Dáil, the State and a Dáil committee which cleared the two TDs of any wrongdoing.
He is not seeking damages, but wants a declaration his rights were breached.
He also wants declarations that the courts had the exclusive right to determine the outcome of the proceedings with RTÉ, that the “substantial effect” of the TDs’ comments was to decide the outcome of that case, and that their interference was “unwarranted”.
Mr O’Brien also wants the court to declare that the Dáil Committee on Procedures and Privileges made an error when it cleared the TDs of any wrongdoing.
The claims are denied by the defendants. The case continues before Ms Justice Una Ni Raifeartaigh.
Online Editors
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét