The Supreme Court has dismissed Denis O’Brien’s appeal against a failed legal action in relation to statements made about him during a Dáil debate.
He claimed two TDs effectively decided a case before the courts by revealing details about his private banking affairs with the IBRC in 2015.
The businessman’s Supreme Court appeal focused on the way the Dáil’s Committee on Procedure and Privileges (CPP) handled his complaint afterwards.
However, the Chief Justice Frank Clarke said the court found nothing wrong with the High Court judge’s decision not to intervene.
He said: "The fundamental point on which this appeal turns is the view of the Court that the challenge which Mr O’Brien seeks to bring to the decision of the CPP would amount to an indirect or collateral challenge to utterances made in the Dáil, and as such that challenge is impermissible.
"The Court concludes that Ms Justice Ní Raifeartaigh was correct in her conclusion that these proceedings are non-justiciable and further correct in her decision to dismiss Mr O’Brien’s case. On that basis the appeal must be dismissed."
Social Democrats co-leader Catherine Murphy, one of the two TDs at the centre of the case, welcomed today's Supreme Court decision.
She said: “The CPP found that I had not abused parliamentary privilege in making a speech which was very squarely within the public interest and that I acted in good faith at all times.
"I am pleased that both the High Court and now the Supreme Court have upheld that decision.”
She added that it's important for politicians to recognise that parliamentary privilege "must only be exercised with great responsibility".
Denis O'Brien has released a statement to say he's disappointed with the decision of the Supreme Court, but fully respects it.
