Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Thursday, 16 February 2017
Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach
Estimates for Public Services 2017
Vote 1 - President's Establishment (Revised)
Vote 2 - Department of the Taoiseach (Revised)
Vote 3 - Office of the Attorney General (Revised)
Vote 4 - Central Statistics Office (Revised)
Vote 5 - Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (Revised)
Vote 6 - Office of the Chief State Solicitor (Revised)
11:10 am
Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source
According to the figures the Taoiseach has outlined, more than €300 million has been allocated for the tribunals for this period. I previously put it to him that on each occasion we establish a tribunal or commission of investigation, people come in to do the work, the tribunal ends, the investigation ends and we let all those people go. The question I have - I have put it to the Taoiseach before - concerns the establishment of an office of investigation, whereby we would establish an administrative staff, people who have the skill sets and abilities to investigate and then, depending on whether it is a tribunal or a commission of investigation or whatever is in place, one slots in a single person to head the office. We are losing people's skill sets and abilities on each occasion a commission of investigation starts and finishes. Would it not be worth considering the establishment of an office of investigation within the State on a statutory footing?
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