Sir, – It is amazing how all of the media focus is on the presidential election. On a scale of importance though, there seems be a complete neglect of the proposals to be put to vote in the parallel referendums.
I am speaking particularly about the proposal to give select Dáil committees the power to examine matters of public importance and make findings of fact.
Is the seriousness of this proposal lost on the world of journalism? Currently, politicians legislate and only judges can make findings of fact(the separation of powers). The proposal to give Dáil committees the massive power to make a finding of fact provides a worrying change of the legislative and judicial balance.
Imagine for example, what use Charlie Haughey might have made of the power to compel witnesses to attend committee hearings, where the committee was composed of his cronies. This proposal, if passed will provide a fully lawful means for politicians to carry out witch-hunts in a populist manner; it will provide the means to carry out politically-motivated trials. Imagine politicians, whose first order of priorities is to be re-elected, sitting in judgment of individuals, perhaps even journalists whom they see as antagonistic. Surely, there is cause for concern here?
Let’s put it another way, whom would you prefer to sit in judgment of an action by you, a handful of politicians or a judge?
In essence giving the power to examine and make findings of fact to the political arena is facilitatory to elements of dictatorship and the potentiality of a police State.
Don’t be lulled into the short-term security of the moderation of our current political masters. There won’t always be moderate masters in place. The judiciary has been tutored and immersed in the qualities of weighing up all of the facts and the supreme importance of impartiality in making findings of fact; judges beholden to no one. It is for good reason that the legislature the judiciary are separate. Let’s keep it that way and find alternative means of enacting public inquiries. – Yours, etc,