Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sorry to interrupt, Deputy Connolly but Mr. Fraser mentioned tribunals ending up in his Department and I would just like to make an observation in the context of the scoping inquiry. On the face of it and based on what we have seen so far, if there is to be a tribunal, it will be under the Department of the Taoiseach. The Department of Health will be a subject of the inquiry, as will the Department of Finance because of its handling of the State Claims Agency, as well as the agency itself. The Department of the Taoiseach is the only one that has had no involvement in this. The Departments of Health and Finance are involved, as is the State Claims Agency. I would argue that neither the Minister for Health nor the Minister for Finance are the appropriate people to head up an inquiry or a tribunal. It will probably fall back to Mr. Fraser, as Accounting Officer of the Department, to account for this when it comes down the road. Does Mr. Fraser see the logic in what I am saying? I cannot see that any other Department could take on a tribunal or commission of investigation or whatever transpires. The Department has been through a tribunal process previously and it is most disappointing that it cannot put a final estimate on the outstanding costs of the first tribunal of inquiry. Mr. Fraser has said that the Department must wait until all claims have been submitted but someone in the Department must be handling it and must know how many cases are still outstanding and have at least an estimate of what is out there. I would hope that if Mr. Fraser and his Department are going to be responsible for a future tribunal or commission of investigation, they will put a good system in place to deal with costings, financing and so forth, before it is up and running in order that Mr. Fraser's successor and my successor will not be saying in ten year's time that they still do not know how much the tribunal or inquiry has cost. That is not good enough for public confidence in the financial side of things. Does Mr. Fraser take my point? He has an opportunity, before the next tribunal comes across his desk, to put a more robust system in place than that which pertained during the previous tribunals.