Irish billionaire Denis O’Brien has launched a legal action against the Irish state and parliament over remarks made by a politician about his banking affairs.
The mobile phone tycoon, who is Ireland’s richest man, has told the president of Dublin’s high court he wanted a full hearing to establish whether parliamentary privilege trumped his rights under the country’s constitution and the European convention on human rights.
In a written statement to the Guardian, O’Brien said: “I endorse parliamentary privilege as a cornerstone of democracy. But so, too, is the right of the individual.”
He is taking the action almost three weeks after an independent member of parliament suggested in a speech before the lower house that O’Brien had enjoyed a lower interest than normal from one of Ireland’s bailed-out banks.
O’Brien’s solicitors sent legal threats to Irish media warning them that covering Catherine Murphy TD’s remarks would be a breach of a temporary injunction he had obtained against the state broadcaster RTÉ, which had wanted to report on his relationship with the former Anglo Irish Bank.
Neither the Irish Times or RTÉ covered Murphy’s speech but other outlets in Ireland and abroad did.
O’Brien has said Murphy’s suggestions were materially inaccurate.
The high court judge who had granted O’Brien his temporary injunction against RTÉ subsequently made clear that he had not intended this to cover Murphy’s speech.
O’Brien’s legal team said they had not intended to gag parliament but that they would be suing the state over what they argue is a breach of parliamentary privilege.
The Irish Times reported that counsel for O’Brien told the president of the high court on Tuesday that he would be taking proceedings against the Houses of the Oireachtas (parliament), Ireland and the attorney general.
A directions hearing on the matter has been listed for 1 July.
