Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 12 March 2015

Committee of Inquiry into the Banking Crisis

Context Phase

Dr. Elaine Byrne:

I think this is in relation to the beef tribunal. This was where, over many years, different Deputies were asking very pertinent and direct questions about issues pertaining to the export of beef to Iraq. At the tribunal, when that particular politician - was it Ray Burke? - was up before it, the response was, "They never asked the right questions, therefore, I never gave them the right answers". It exposed - this is again going back to what Professor David Farrell would have referred to yesterday - the weakness of the Dáil in respect of getting answers from the Government of the day.