Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The one point here is that the Minister is empowering the deputy commissioner to appoint an investigation officer that shall be appointed for such period as the deputy commissioner may determine, shall be paid such fees and expenses as the deputy commissioner may, with the consent of the Minister, from time to time determine, may resign at any time, shall hold office on such other terms and conditions as the deputy commissioner may from time to time determine, including such terms and conditions as are likely, in the opinion of the deputy commissioner, to secure the officer's independence and impartiality. The Minister is potentially going outside the fold of the Standards in Public Office Commissioner. If I were to be subjective, I would say he is conferring on the deputy commissioner powers to appoint, hire, fire and pay at will. It would be better – the Minister will correct me if I am wrong - to have an in-house investigation staffed and properly resourced rather than putting it out to tender. I assume there would have to be a tender process. If it is not open to a tender process, what other process would it be open to? I fear that the person who could be appointed, although appointed by the sheriff, so to speak, could be a bit of a lone wolf. We cannot speak to the bona fides of that person and, without prescribing this in legislation, we are relying on the discretion of the deputy commissioner. That is a little worry that I have.