Richard O'Donoghue demands accountability for rogue civil servants

To be quite clear, and before I start off, I'd like to thank John Campbell, Mark Nolan, Emma Corrigan, my colleagues here on Independent Ireland, and most of all the whistleblowers that gave us the details and information on this to make sure that we can bring PNB to government, which they are after delivering in 20 minutes of actually waffle outside of what we were talking about, and I want to make this quite clear of what we are looking for, a review of the statutory protections afforded to civil servants, and this is where you have to listen now, deputies from that side of the house, a clear mechanism for professional accountability when officials act outside of their remit, not within their remit, so if they are doing the things right, give them 100% protection. If they are doing things wrong, they are breaking the law, and you should not give them protection. And if they are knowingly breaking the law, you should not protect them. The House is using public funds to defend ultra-virus actions, except where a genuine good-faith error can be demonstrated. This House has a duty to ensure that state powers are exercised lawfully and transparently, and that when it is abused, responsibility does not fall with the taxpayer, with the taxpayer or an innocent family, but to those who misuse that power. We can go across all the civil servants, and there are civil servants doing brilliant work, they are doing good work, they are doing responsible work, and they are helping. We have a minority that have abused their power. But they also were in positions that people that were in job descriptions under them, that they also abused the power on them to follow it on. And keep this thing going. This is a responsibility of the persons that started this. So I am not asking you to break the law. In a review of the submission of the EU Directive, 50% of all submissions came from Ireland. And you are not listening. I have heard people from that side of the House stand up here and say, yes, you are right. I will watch every one of you this evening how ye vote. And I am asking the Government this evening to have an open vote in recognition of these whistleblowers here today. That is what I am asking. I am asking every one of you a vote of conscience. That is something that is in the remit of Government. A vote of conscience. How many of you a vote of conscience. How many of you will sleep tonight if ye vote under a whip system today on an amendment that ye are bringing to this. It is wrong. And knowingly ye know it is wrong by protecting people in the civil service that are doing wrong outside of their remit. This is what we are asking to do. Every one of the colleagues here on the opposition benches spoke on this today. There was people who had tears in their eyes from what they are telling you is what is happening. And ye bring this to the table. And ye bring this to the table. Twenty minutes of reading that literature. Jessica Sheedy, 2018, died in UHL hospital. And only for the whistleblowers that same management would be in place today and we would not be correcting the past. We have a new management there who are trying their best to repair the damage that was done. On a girl that died on a girl that died on a person that should have never been allowed to operate in the first place. Because somebody withheld pain in the first place. That investigation has gone on to paper work. That investigation has gone on to the UK. And then they have gone on to the UK in the UK. The investigation has gone on to the UK. Bhopper of it, and now we have gone back to the UK. would be in place today and we would not be correcting the past. We have a new management there who are trying their best to repair the damage that was done on a girl that died on a person that should have never been allowed to operate in the first place because somebody withheld paperwork. That investigation has gone on since 2018 and now it's gone back to the UK to show them the full paperwork that was not disclosed. And you want to protect them under the whistlebores and a law to say that they have been protected? They're not. I know her family. Anne and Jimmy. I was at their wedding and you are here putting in an amendment to protect them. That's wrong. We have people in the Garda service. That's all wrongdoing. And what you do? You're protecting the people that have done wrongful doing. Instead of rewarding the people that are doing good and the people that are trying to improve to make sure that they're lawful and right, you're there to protect them. Would any of you tell your children, keep going and doing wrong and we'll protect you? None of you here would. Would you? With your conscience. So I'm asking you to withdraw your amendment. I'm asking every deputy in this house on that side of government to withdraw it and do the right thing. I'm not asking to put civil servants at risk. The good ones. I'm asking you by law to bring the civil servants to justice and stop the rot. Millions of euros have been spent in cover-ups because they're afraid of the law. What's wrong with putting up your hands and listen, I've done wrong? Yes, there will be people who will make allegations and people will make submissions to say there's wrongdoing being done to them. That's within the laws that if people make wrongfully make allegations, that can be dealt with. And rightly so, when people are bringing false allegations, that needs to be dealt with as well. But the laws are there for that. But there's no laws for what's happening here. None. So from Tulsa, to our fire service, to our county councils, and I read out a case today that's going on since 2019, where the judge has made a statement on the case to say that there was no evidence from the local authority. But they used and abused the privilege of taxpayers' money and the privilege of government to bring this to court knowingly that they hadn't the evidence and wanted to put a criminal conviction on somebody because someone else came up with some illusion that they wanted to bring it to court. That's wrong. If somebody does something wrong, they're brought to court, they're held accountable. That's Mead County Council. I have it in Limerick County Council. I have it in Cork. I have six or seven county councils at the moment showing the cases that came to court should never have went to court. And now there's high court challenges, and I'm going to put it on the record here today, that I'm now telling you that there are people within our civil services that are knowingly doing wrong. And when you see it go to the high court and you see it being lost, you can sit there and shame. You have a chance now to do right. And your chance to do right is to have a vote of conscience, an open vote by government. The Taoiseach walked in here a minute ago, and I believe he walked out again. But I will be asking, and I respect that, because there was ten minutes to close the four leaders' questions. Nobody's here. But I'm asking you to look up there, think of your children and think of your families. When you vote on this tonight, that you knowingly are protecting civil services that are doing wrong. You need to protect the ones that are doing right and reward them. And you need to make sure that you bring those justices to law. The law of this country is the law. And you're not above the law. So I'm asking you now, please, hold these people accountable. And for these people that have went through torture, to bring it, reward them for their goodness and for bringing this and taking all the efforts within their families as well.