The Court of Appeal has dismissed Senator Brian Ó Domhnaill’s appeal against a High Court ruling concerning a Standards in Public Office Commission inquiry into claims that he received duplicate expenses or allowances while serving on Údarás na Gaeltachta and Donegal County Council.
The judgment, delivered by Charleton J on 24 July 2015, upheld the High Court’s decision on each issue before it. The court did not determine whether the allegations about expenses were true. It said the Commission’s preliminary conclusions were not before it for review and that it could not express a view on their correctness.
The inquiry followed an unsigned complaint sent on 9 August 2011 to ethics registrars at Údarás na Gaeltachta and Donegal County Council. The letter alleged six instances of duplicate claims; the judgment said four appeared still relevant to the Commission’s inquiry. Donegal County Council examined the matter and later referred it to the Commission in a letter signed by the county mayor and manager.
Ó Domhnaill argued that the Commission was barred from considering the matter because the original complaint was anonymous. The Court of Appeal agreed with the High Court that the complaint before the Commission was made by the two named council officials after the council had independently examined the issue. It therefore rejected the appeal ground concerning the statutory ban on investigating an anonymous complaint. The court also rejected the argument that the council lacked authority to make the referral.
On language rights, Ó Domhnaill argued that the Commission’s members should be able to understand Irish evidence without an interpreter, and that the Commission should be constituted to conduct the hearing in Irish. The court affirmed that a person may use Irish before a court or tribunal, but held that this did not require every Commission member to be fluent in both official languages. It said interpretation was a reasonable and proportionate means of enabling Irish-language submissions.
The separate claim under the Official Languages Act 2003 was withdrawn at the appeal hearing. The court noted the High Court’s finding that the Commission’s legal advisers had replied in Irish after Ó Domhnaill requested that communications be conducted in that language, and said there was nothing wrong with that reasoning.
The appeal was dismissed. The judgment did not decide the substance of the expense allegations or direct the Commission to reach any particular conclusion in its inquiry.