GREEN PARTY chairman Senator Dan Boyle has said Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly should be allowed to talk to any Oireachtas committee she deems necessary, as an officer of the State.
His comments follow rejection by the Government of any further action from her report on the controversial Lost at Sea scheme, in which she recommended compensation to a Co Donegal family.
In the Dáil last week, Taoiseach Brian Cowen ruled out any further action on the report, but Mr Boyle’s comments are likely to put pressure on the Government to rethink the issue. Mr Boyle said that since there had been statements in the Dáil and Seanad, the Ombudsman should be entitled to respond to that, and the best place was a parliamentary committee.
There were several relevant committees, he said, including finance, public accounts and agriculture, as well as the committee on the Constitution.
Mr Boyle, a member of the committee on the Constitution, said the topic would arise at its next meeting because Fine Gael agriculture spokesman Michael Creed had written to the committee that the dispute between the Ombudsman and the Department of Agriculture was a constitutional issue.
The scheme was set up by former minister for the marine Frank Fahey to help families who lost vessels at sea to replace their capacity. A Co Donegal family felt they had been treated unfairly and eventually went to the Ombudsman.
Last night on RTÉ's The Week in Politicsprogramme, Ms O'Reilly said she would have accepted the view of an Oireachtas committee on her report, but she never got to a committee.
“If the Oireachtas or a committee, not under whip, decided that my recommendations were off the wall and decided collectively that that was the case, then I would accept that, but that is not what has happened in this case. I haven’t even got as far a committee.”
She added: “The problem here is that it has broken down along party political lines and therefore there has been no collective evaluation of the recommendations.”
She said there was nothing wrong with the manner in which Mr Fahey had involved himself in it. “It was just that the entire scheme led to inequity in that people were treated differently.”
Also on RTÉ, Mr Fahey said he had no problems answering questions, but the Oireachtas had decided the Department of Agriculture was correct not to accept Ms O’Reilly’s recommendations.
