The two politicians ordered by the Morris tribunal to identify their sources for serious allegations against senior gardaí vowed yesterday to continue to fight to protect the identity of their informants.
The Labour Party's Mr Brendan Howlin and Senator Jim Higgins of Fine Gael said they would go to the High Court in the coming weeks to defend the fundamental right of citizens to give information to public representatives in confidence.
The Oireachtas members reacted with disappointment to yesterday's ruling by Mr Justice Frederick Morris, who ordered that they supply his inquiry with details of correspondence with their informants through telephone and fax records.
The tribunal chairman put a four-week stay on his orders for discovery to allow the two politicians to take judicial review proceedings to the High Court. Mr Howlin said he wanted to facilitate the tribunal and he and Mr Higgins had agitated for it to be established. "I accept that they feel identification of sources would assist them but it would compromise a principle that's too important for our democracy," he said.
Mr Howlin added that: "As far as I am concerned, the information given to me was privileged. I assumed it was privileged, the person who gave it to me assumed it was privileged and I must protect that right so that the next person who comes to me with concerns about wrongdoing must able to do that without fear."
Mr Howlin said there would be "damaging consequences for democratic accountability in our society if people could not bring important information to elected representatives without the sources being exposed".
Mr Higgins said he believed "the case for the constitutional rights of elected representatives to protect their sources and the right of people to go to public representatives in confidence is urgent and compelling."
The tribunal's ruling "flies in the face of the Constitution and to divulge the source of the information would be an absolute betrayal on my part of the constitutional obligations that I have," he added.
Mr Higgins said he was prepared for any possible consequence of the judgment. "We are determined . . . to take whatever measures are necessary to protect the sources," he added.
The Green Party's whip and member of the Dáil Committee on Procedures and Privileges, Mr Dan Boyle, said he was disappointed at the tribunal ruling which is "necessarily compromising the principle of parliamentary privilege".
What they said: Political reaction
"As far as I am concerned, the information given to me was privileged. I must protect that right so that the next person who comes to me with concerns about wrongdoing must be able to do that without fear." - Brendan Howlin
"The case for the constitutional rights of elected representatives to protect their sources and the right of people to go to public representatives in confidence is urgent and compellin." -
Jim Higgins