Committee to give public greater say has only sat once
AN OIREACHTAS committee set up to ensure that citizens can have issues they are concerned about put before the Dáil has sat just once in public since its establishment last September.
The Petitions Committee, which was set up to give the public a greater say in what is debated within the Oireachtas, is chaired by controversial Sinn Féin TD Martin Browne.
But the ‘live or otherwise’ status of the ‘phantom’ committee has been questioned by an array of public representatives who wonder exactly what it is doing.
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald appointed Mr Browne as chairman last September. ‘I have no doubt he will do an excellent job, and that he will use the position to provide a platform for the voices of the public to be heard,’ she said.
But the committee has, since its establishment in September, sat just once in public for 10 minutes, in December.
In its sole sitting to date, the committee failed to elect a vice-chair after a row broke out over Tipperary TD Browne’s declaration on Tipp FM that week that apologies ‘should stop’ over IRA killings during the Troubles and Sinn Féin’s approach to their remembrance.
Mr Browne, who earns €7,500 a year for chairing the committee, also found himself in hot water for sharing controversial Facebook posts in recent years, including one pushing a conspiracy theory that the 9/11 attacks in the US were faked.
Another shared post in 2017, since deleted from his Facebook account, questioned whether Syrian president Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons on his own people.
At the sole meeting of the committee, Fine Gael TD Brendan Griffin noted of the revelations: ‘I was very concerned by comments attributed to you in the past 24 hours, as were many people throughout the country.’
Mr Griffin also called for Mr Browne to ‘explain these comments [that] have caused a great deal of hurt and upset to many people’.
The FG TD added that ‘as the committee will consider petitions from members of the public on matters of grave sensitivity in some cases, it is of critical importance that they have confidence in the chairman of the committee.’
Former housing minister Eoghan Murphy said that Mr Browne’s refusal to deal publicly with the issue felt ‘like censorship’.
He also warned that a ‘serious question hangs over the work of the committee into the future’ and that the dispute had the potential to ‘bring the committee system into disrepute’.
This unease has hardened in the wake of the failure of the committee, five months after its establishment, to hear a single petition or elect a vice-chairperson.
One source conceded: ‘The issue has been deferred a couple of times. We are still trying to finalise our terms of reference and work programmes.’
It is, another source said, ‘utterly embarrassing. This is the phantom committee. No-one knows whether it exists or if it is a myth.’
It is, they added, ‘a political zombie. We do not know whether it is alive or dead and it does not appear to be the case that we will know anytime soon’.
They added: ‘This sort of thing – the committee that sits for a minute a month – does us all reputational harm.’
The committee is due to sit next week in a public session with representatives of the Ombudsman offices next week, but concerns are rising that the irregular status of the committee will compromise this.
Another TD warned: ‘This is bringing politics into disrepute and properly so. We may have to set up a petition to reform the Petitions Committee.’
The committee is split between three Sinn Féin members, chairman Martin Browne, Pat Buckley, and the controversial Senator Fintan Warfield.
Fine Gael have three high-profile members – Golfgate Senator Jerry Buttimer, and former ministers Brendan Griffin and Eoghan Murphy.
In a statement, Mr Browne said: ‘The main objective of the Joint Committee on Public Petitions is to review its terms of reference, as decided by committee members. This can only be done in private session.’
The committee has a target date of March 23 to approve that report in public session.
‘The position of vice chairperson is a decision that must be made in public session, which is the reason why that position has not yet been filled.
‘I and all members of the committee are intent on moving the process forward as fast as possible to ensure the committee can begin carrying out its public functions.
‘Furthermore,’ he added, ‘due to health and safety measures in Leinster House as agreed by the Business Committee, the Joint Committee on Public Petitions has only been able to meet on a fortnightly basis.’
‘These comments have caused much upset’
‘It brings the committee system into disrepute’