The High Court will deliver its judgment in the New Year in the action taken by businessman Denis O'Brien over statements made by two TDs in the Dáil about his banking affairs.
Mr O'Brien says Social Democrats TD Catherine Murphy and Sinn Féin’s Pearse Doherty interfered with an ongoing court case and clearly disregarded the separation of powers when they revealed information in the Dáil last year that he had gone to court to stop RTÉ broadcasting.
He wants the court to express its disapproval of what the TDs did and how the Dáil Committee on Procedure and Privileges, which oversees how Dáil debates are conducted, dealt with them.
The Dáil and the State say under Article 15 of the Constitution the courts have no power to intervene in relation to what deputies say in the House.
In their closing arguments this morning Mr O’Brien’s lawyers said the businessman was not trying to "chill anybody's speech" but wanted the rules applied.
Senior Counsel, Eileen Barrington, said several interventions of the Leas -Cheann Comhairle asking Ms Murphy not to name names underlined that point.
She said Mr O'Brien wanted a limited relief, a declaration that the statements amounted to unwarranted interference in the judicial domain and to have "the rules of the game" applied to respect the constitutional separation of powers.
His case was that what happened was not right, their statements should not have been made and there were consequences for making them, she said.
She said his case was not captured by the constitutional provisions relating to what TDs said in the Dáil because he was not trying to have any legal consequence imposed on any TD.
He wanted the court to define the vital fault line between the organs of the State.
She said this was not a hypothetical issue but a live one. She added that you would only have to turn on the radio to see that.
Costs in the case, which ran for more than seven days are expected to be more than €1m.
