Sir, – I note that an independent auditor will now “assess whether or not the process has been compromised” (“Resignation erodes Governments working majority”, News, October 12th).
However, it should be noted that with any potential allegation of objective bias, no complaint is made that a party was motivated by actual bias. In fact, it must be clearly understood that such an allegation is not intended to and does not have the effect of impacting upon a person’s personal integrity in any way. The test is centrally rooted on the necessity of establishing and maintaining the confidence of the public in the integrity of public administration generally.
Consequently, whatever conclusions the independent auditor comes up with, the observations of Mr Justice McKechnie, in the 2015 Supreme Court judgment in the Reid case, when setting aside a decision to compulsorily acquire, should be borne in mind by all: “Thus, the prism through which the issue must be considered is that of a reasonable observer’s perception of what happened; therefore as has been said on numerous occasions what the parties, the witnesses or even us judges think, is not decisive. It is what the reasonable person’s view is, albeit a person well informed of the essential background and particular circumstances, of the individual case.” – Yours, etc,
JOHN R QUIGLEY,
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Lecturer in Law,
School of Business
& Humanities,
Limerick Institute
of Technology,
Moylish,
Limerick.
Sir, – Denis Naughten observes that his resignation “is more about opinion polls than telecoms poles. It’s more about optics than fibre optics” (Dáil Report, october 12th).
Has he thought about a career in stand-up comedy? – Yours, etc,
Dr JOHN DOHERTY,
Gaoth Dobhair
Co Dhún na nGall.