People Before Profit-Solidarity TD Paul Murphy has said it would be a “good idea” for former taoiseach Leo Varadkar to give evidence in court about the practice of so-called “super junior” Ministers attending cabinet.
Mr Murphy outlined that a case he has taken seeking an injunction against the practice would mean oral evidence given in open court.
Facing repeated questioning over whether witnesses could include former taoisigh, such as Leo Varadkar, Mr Murphy said he would defer to his legal advice but that his view is that it would be a good idea.
Mr Murphy’s case is the second legal action Opposition TDs took over the practice, with Sinn Féin climate spokesman Pa Daly also seeking a judicial review.
The Dublin South-West TD said the practice was the “biggest stroke of all”, but added that he only recently became aware of the potential strength of a legal case against it and would have acted sooner if he knew about it.
He also said that an article by Mr Varadkar in the Sunday Times describing his attitudes and view of the use of super juniors had “copper-fastened” his intent in taking the case.
Mr Varadkar wrote that the use of super juniors was to “get around” constitutional limits on the number of cabinet ministers in place which dictate the goverment is composed of not fewer than seven and not more than 15 members. He also wrote that super juniors brought memos to cabinet.
“Now we have it in writing from a former taoiseach that effectively there is no distinction between super juniors and full ministers,” he said
Mr Murphy said his and Mr Daly’s cases were not co-ordinated, but “complimentary” because they took different legal angles of attack.
He said that the “significant difference” between Mr Daly’s judicial review and his plenary action is that there will be oral evidence from witnesses in the latter. He added that there were a “number of people” he could think of that might be suitable.
“We need to discuss with the lawyers and figure out exactly what we’ll do. We don’t have a final strategy in terms of witnesses … but there’s a lot of people that you can imagine would be interesting to get in,” he said.
His case also sought an injunction preventing the practice from continuing and also declaring that decisions taken by the current Cabinet with super juniors in attendance were unconstitutional.
Are 'super-juniors' unconstitutional? With Fintan O'Toole
There were four super juniors appointed by the Government — one each from Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael and two from the Independents supporting the Coalition.
Mr Murphy said he believed the case should be heard urgently and that it had the potential to be a “real problem” for the Government.
His case also asks the court to declare that the top-up payments were unconstitutional and that the super juniors' attendance is also unconstitutional.
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