Decision to reactive Bill may be seen as attempt to intimidate tribunal
Issued : Thursday 15 November, 2007
Statement by Joan Burton TD
Minister for Social Protection
The decision of the government to reactivate the Tribunals of Inquiry Bill 2005, two years after it was published and four weeks before the Taoiseach is due to return to the Mahon Tribunal, is difficult to understand, and will certainly be interpreted by many members of the public as a direct attempt to intimidate the Tribunal
The Bill was originally published in November 2005. Nothing was done with it; no effort was made to progress it until suddenly in October of last year, in the immediate aftermath of disclosure that the Mahon Tribunal was investigating a range payments received by the Taoiseach from wealthy businessmen when he was Minister for Finance in 1994, the former Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell decided that the Bill was urgent and should be taken.
As a result of strong objections raised by the Labour Party and indeed the Green Party, the government was forced to drop its plans to take the Bill last October. It was restored to the Order Paper in June after the election, in spite of strong objections from the Labour Party.
I believe that restoring the Bill to the Order Paper at this stage would send out all the wrong messages to the public. They will rightly ask why the Bill is being reactivated at this time.
The Moriarty Tribunal has concluded its public hearings and is understood to be preparing its report. The Mahon Tribunal has made its clear that it hopes to conclude public hearings by the Spring/Early Summer 2008 and that it will then commence preparation of its report. Given the experience with Moriarty and Mahon, and the alternative forms of investigation that are now available, it we are unlikely to see another inquiry of this nature established again in the forseeable future. Why then does the government need powers to bring a motion to the Dail to close down a Tribunal?
The Bill has to be also seen against repeated complaints by the Taoiseach and his suppporters of unfair treatment at the hands of Tribunal.
If the government insists on pushing this Bill through it will be a sword of Damocles hanging over their head of the Tribunal. Is this what the government wants.
