Houses of the Oireachtas (Inquiries, Privileges and Procedures) Act 2013
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PART 8 Privilege and Immunity of Committees and Members of Houses and Restriction of Evidence of Certain Persons | ||
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Privilege and immunity of committees, etc. |
92.— (1) A member of a House shall not, in respect of any utterance in or before a committee, be amenable to any court or any authority other than the House. | |
(2) Subject to sections 36 (2) and 37 (2), the following are privileged wherever published: | ||
(a) the documents of a committee and the documents of committee members connected with the committee or its functions, | ||
(b) all official reports and publications of a committee, and | ||
(c) the utterances made in proceedings of a committee. | ||
(3) Utterances made or documents prepared at or for meetings of a committee that are held otherwise than in public and at which no evidence is given to the committee shall not be disclosed without the consent in writing of the chairman. | ||
(4) A document given to a committee by a person who is not a committee member shall cease to be a document of the committee under subsection (2)(a) if the committee so decides. | ||
(5) In this section “utterance” includes a statement within the meaning of the Defamation Act 2009 . |