Sir, – It is quite concerning to hear you call for a serious set of sanctions to be imposed on TDs who allegedly abuse parliamentary privilege (Editorial:, April 18th). Any sanction other than a verbal reprimand, such as fines or suspension from the Dáil, would be unconstitutional, and would seriously compromise such privilege.
The idea of a bunch of TDs calculating the appropriate fine to impose on an allegedly uncouth TD, particularly in the context of the oppressive defamation laws they already hover over the rest of us, is frightening.
The Dáil is the last bastion of free speech in a country that sits as an outlier within Europe in terms of the level of uncapped damages that can be imposed for defamatory comments and the inoperable exceptions for political speech in our defamation laws. Parliamentary privilege is primarily the privilege of the public (exercised by TDs) to assist the exposure of wrongdoing, and can generally only be revoked by the voting public, in a subsequent election.
Of course, the public should be assisted in an assessment of any “abuse” of such privilege, by informed and critical analysis by journalists. What we need is a more liberal political speech regime for journalists, not greater muzzling powers for politicians. Accountability is at a low enough ebb already. – Yours, etc,
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KIERAN FITZPATRICK,
Anbally,
Cummer,
Co Galway.