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Dáil and Seanad’s virtual sessions have been dropped due to legal advice.
The Houses of the Oireachtas had been exploring whether technical solutions could facilitate remote member participation during the Covid-19 emergency.
Four sessions of a small number of Dáil deputies have been held with no more than 50 members present to ensure adequate social distancing.
The Business Committee has now received legal advice that the Constitution would not allow remote meetings and that there would be a particular problem with parliamentary privileges.
A spokesperson for the Houses of the Oireachtas confirmed today that virtual sessions will not be held.
Instead, there are plans for Dáil and Seanad to sit at the Dublin Convention Center, which has enough space for all 160 members of the Lower House to be present while maintaining social distancing.
This is intended to be used for a vote on the nomination of the Taoiseach and Cabinet members.
However, Fianna Fáil’s spokesperson for Science and Technology, James Lawless, has called for further exploration of the virtual sessions.
“Legislation must be debated, examined and approved, and members of the government must be held accountable for the decisions made that affect us all in these unprecedented times.”
Lawless said the cost of the proposed sessions at the Convention Center would be € 50,000 per session, which could amount to € 500,000.
He also said that he had obtained separate legal advice that determined that virtual sessions could be held.
Lawless, who is also a lawyer, said the Irish parliament was becoming an outlier as the House of Commons and the European parliament had pledged to use the technology to hold virtual sessions.
He said it might be possible to have a hybrid model where some people physically attend but others participate online.
The legal question centers on the interpretation of article 15 of the Constitution. The Business Committee received the advice of the main advisor Shane Murphy, who determined that a virtual session would not meet the requirements of Article 15, since the members would not be sitting publicly in the same place, and would not be inside the premises of any Chamber to to benefit from immunities with respect to declarations.
However, the advice obtained by Mr. Lawless, provided by lead attorney Ciarán Toland, found that the Constitution does not rule out virtual sessions and that these would also be covered by privileges.
The Dáil has a reduced member seated again this Thursday.
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