OMBUDSMAN O’REILLY LAUNCHES STINGING ATTACK ON DÁIL
THE new EU Ombudsman has criticised the Dáil for not ‘taking itself seriously’.
Emily O’Reilly said t he Parliament spends its time ‘ ducking and diving’ and ‘pretending’ it has no power.
Speaking on the opening night of the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co. Donegal, Mrs O’Reilly referenced a recent speech by former Attorney General Peter Sutherland, in which he queried if the courts had too much power.
Mrs O’Reilly said the courts are often left to ‘divine’ the intentions of politicians, when they ‘cobble together deliberately ambiguous laws’ and at times ‘deliberately ambiguous Constitutional amendments’.
She stated: ‘I would submit that while the courts – in Sutherland’s view – feel they have too much unwanted power, parliament itself spends much of its time ducking and diving and pretending that it has no power whatsoever.
‘Meanwhile the executive, when it’s not ducking and diving – itself in relation to weighty matters of the sort noted by Sutherland – is planting its boot far too firmly in the neck of the parliament and wielding power in a manner never envisaged by the Constitution.’ Mrs O’Reilly, who was appointed as EU Ombudsman last month, was giving the John Hume lecture at the annual Summer School.
This week a range of politians, academics, historians and economists will visit the Donegal town for the week’s events, the theme of which is political reform.
On Wednesday, a group of Government backbenchers and Independent TDs wil give their experience of life in the Dáil.
The inadequacy of the political and administrative institutions of the Republic will be debated by Michael McDowell, former leader of the Progressive Democrats, former Attorney- General and f ormer Tánaiste, along with Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin.
Health Minister James Reilly will tell if there is ‘light at the end of the tunnel for the health service’, while several economists will debate the economic collapse on Thursday.