MINISTER FOR Public Expenditure and Reform Brendan Howlin is determined to press ahead with Oireachtas inquiries despite the electorate’s rejection of the Government-backed referendum to give committees strong powers.
Mr Howlin has been examining how TDs and Senators could be allowed to carry out parliamentary investigations without a requirement for constitutional change.
The Minister will now consider what “legislative underpinning” would be required to permit such inquiries, according to his spokeswoman.
The referendum seeking to provide the Oireachtas with full powers of inquiry was defeated last October by 53.3 per cent to 46.7 per cent. Mr Howlin was the sponsoring Minister.
The result was seen as a blow to the Coalition’s authority just seven months into its tenure.
However, Mr Howlin’s department and the Attorney General’s office have been in consultation about the matter since then.
They have been “assessing the options that may be available for the Oireachtas to carry out parliamentary inquiries consistent with the existing constitutional position”, Mr Howlin’s spokeswoman said. “This analysis built on a very significant amount of work which had been carried out on the powers of Oireachtas inquiries in advance of the referendum.
“This work will allow the Minister in the first instance to examine what legislative underpinning may need to be put in place for Oireachtas inquiries, reflecting, for example, the proposals expected shortly from the PAC [public accounts committee],” she said.
The Government would have sought to have matters such as the banking crisis investigated if the referendum had passed. In the closing days of the campaign last year, Taoiseach Enda Kenny said easing the limitations on Oireachtas committees would mean issues such as the banking crisis could be inquired into.
In pressing for the constitutional amendment, the Coalition had been seeking to overturn the so-called Abbeylara judgment, which halted an Oireachtas inquiry into the shooting dead of John Carthy at his home in Abbeylara, Co Longford, during a stand-off with gardaí in 2000.
The programme for government promised a referendum to amend the Constitution to reverse the effects of the Abbeylara judgment and enable Oireachtas committees to carry out full investigations, which it described as a matter of “urgent parliamentary reform”.
The referendum took place on the same day as the presidential election and the proposed amendment to cut judges’ pay, which was passed. Speaking in the wake of the result of the Oireachtas inquiries referendum, Mr Howlin attributed the defeat to a “degree of mistrust that still exists between people and politicians”.
