REFERENDUM:MINISTER FOR Communications Pat Rabbitte has admitted that holding the referendum to give increased powers to Oireachtas committees on the same day as the presidential election was not the Government's "wisest decision".
Mr Rabbitte said he would have liked to have seen much greater “depth and breadth” of debate on the referendum, but the presidential election appeared to have overshadowed all other issues. A referendum to reduce judges’ pay will also be held on Thursday.
“When a Government has a huge programme of reform and when it must go to the people by way of constitutional referendum, the idea is that if there is a presidential election that is costing a lot of money, that you should run with it referenda,” he said.
“Now as it happens maybe that wasn’t the wisest decision we made because in this case the nature of this extraordinary presidential campaign has dominated coverage of everything else.”
Mr Rabbitte was speaking on the Sam Smyth on Sundayshow on Today FM yesterday.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny has appealed for Yes votes in both referendums.
Mr Kenny said in Brussels yesterday that the Oireachtas inquiries referendum would provide an alternative to tribunals in certain instances “and allow issues of public importance to be put under the spotlight in a public, cost-efficient and timely fashion by democratically elected representatives of the Irish people”.
Mr Kenny said the referendum on judges’ pay would ensure pay reductions that applied across the public service also applied to the judiciary.
“This is about fairness . . . This provision in no way impinges on the independence of the judiciary in the exercise of their functions,” he added.
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore also called for a Yes vote in the two referendums. Oireachtas inquiries would cost less than tribunals and “will help us break away from vested interests and examine important matters of public interest such as the Irish banking system”, he said.
Mr Gilmore said the purpose of the amendment was to allow committees to inquire into public policy events and not individuals. “However, that may involve a finding against an individual as individuals do make mistakes. There is no case that people will not be allowed to vindicate their rights before the courts in this process,” he said.
Former Fianna Fáil minister Mary O’Rourke, who voiced her opposition to the referendum at an Irish Council for Civil Liberties event last week, said she remained “absolutely opposed to it”.
“I think that it’s open-ended and very alarming,” she said. “I say that from my many years as a politician and knowing the nature of the beast. They would see themselves as having their own detective agency, with each of them being the stars of same.”
