John Deasy (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In his opening statement, Mr. Watt stated, “The public spending code provides that appraisals and detailed assessments should be carried out before Exchequer resources are committed.” He also said the Government did not expect the IBRC inquiry to be eight years at the time when it made the decision to set it up. Now that there is an expectation that the IBRC inquiry could take eight years, does Mr. Watt revise this? Does he put a cap on it? Does he say to the Government this could be massively open-ended? Does the Department say it cannot have this, based on what has happened historically with open-ended tribunals and the costs that have ensued? The public deserves some kind of assurance that we are not going to repeat the mistakes of the past when it comes to investigations. Is that fair?