SINN Féin's deputy leader Mary Lou Mc-Donald has rejected an accusation that she abused her Dáil privilege by publicly naming six former politicians as tax dodgers.
The deputy sparked a storm in December when she listed several former Irish government ministers she alleged were named in a file on offshore Ansbacher Bank accounts used to avoid tax in the Republic.
The Dublin deputy told the Dáil that she was in possession of a dossier compiled by an Ansbacher whistleblower and senior civil servant and she named a number of former high-profile politicians as being featured in the documents.
All those named by Ms McDonald, and the family of one person who had died, later publicly rejected all claims that they had been involved in efforts to cheat the exchequer.
The Dáil's disciplinary watchdog has now found that the Sinn Féin deputy did abuse her parliamentary privilege when she read out the list of names.
The Committee on Procedures and Privileges (CPP) ruled that the TD's "utterances" had been "in the nature of being defamatory" and "prima facie an abuse of privilege".
In a letter the CPP asked Ms McDonald to withdraw her comments, however she wrote back insisting she had followed the Dáil's internal rules.
Ms McDonald last night restated her stance that she had exercised her constitutional right to privilege in the Dáil "to give voice to very serious allegations made in respect off-shore accounts and political obstruction".
She said the source of the allegations was a briefing dossier prepared by "authorised officers who are both reputable and credible". Ms McDonald said she had written to Taoiseach Enda Kenny asking him to examine "fully" the allegations contained in the dossier.
Earlier, Fianna Fáil TD Seán Ó Fearghail, who complained to the CPP about Ms McDonald's actions, said that deputies were expected to act responsibly and use their Dáil privilege responsibly.
"Deputy McDonald is a member of the Public Accounts Committee and that was the proper forum to engage on this particular matter. Despite that advice she proceeded to raise that matter in the Dáil.
"The substance had been investigated by the Dáil procedures previously. Quite clearly what was afoot here was Sinn Féin engaging in a political stunt," he said.
However, Ms McDonald is being supported by her party colleagues in Leinster House, with fellow Dublin TD Aenghus Ó Snodaigh saying she did not accept the CPP findings.
Donegal deputy Pearse Doherty also said Ms McDonald had "made it clear that she will not be retracting what she said on the floor of the Dáil because she believes that she was entitled to do that under the privilege afforded to her".