Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What the Chair has said is not without foundation. We have all dealt with situations similar in nature to those that have been described. There are two sides to it. A prima facie case should be established so that people cannot unilaterally decide to blacken somebody's name or reputation. We need to be careful about this. However, there are situations that come to our attention as elected Members of the Houses and our only response is to raise it in the House and we should do so. It is the only place we get the privilege to do so. On the other hand there are cases where there is already in existence a body that is appropriate to deal with the situation.

I can think of a particular case where the House would not deal with something because it was more appropriate for another body to deal with it. It cost the State an awful lot more because the case went to court and the individual won. The cost was immeasurably greater than it would have been if the issue had been answered in the first instance. There will be others I have no doubt about it. I remember being involved in arguments with the people concerned and saying they should settle it quickly, acknowledge it and deal with it and do whatever had to be done. This was not done. I got lectures about the law and all sorts about what consequences were. That was all nonsense. In the long and the short of it, when the court made its decision and rightly so, the cost to the State was much greater than was anticipated at the beginning. Somebody was doing something wrong.

There are such situations that come up from time to time. The only way Members of the Oireachtas can deal with them is to table a parliamentary question. If the question is not answered it means perhaps that behind the scenes the relevant Department said that it did not want to answer the question and it was none of its business. It is all nonsense and the Chair has said this already.