Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I welcome this debate as an opportunity for the House to consider what is an extremely detailed and comprehensive report. It is an opportunity for the House to consider what is actually in the report rather than the Opposition's spin on what it contains. The report examines all the elements of how a charge ruled illegal by the Supreme Court in 1976 was kept in place for 28 years. Why the decision was made at that time to maintain the charge without making any attempt to regularise it and why it was not dealt with until now is complex and reveals a substantial systems failure over 28 years. By presenting such an extensive treatment of the facts the report allows us to understand this failure.

I will comment primarily on those parts of the report which relate to the last period it examines. Just like 160 other Deputies, I was not a Member of the House in 1976 or for some time after that. I will not pretend to have detailed knowledge of events of that time, or for most of the subsequent period, but if we are to understand this issue we have to look at what happened during this time because the past few years fit fundamentally into a pattern established 28 years ago. It must be noted that for several months we have heard an ongoing cycle of spin and misrepresentation. Many people in this House have repeatedly tried to pre-empt and prejudge this report. Now that it has been published, the same people are choosing to ignore facts that do not suit their arguments. Faced with a choice between trying to examine and understand a major failure stretching across three decades or simply playing politics, they have chosen the latter. The culture of playing the man and not the ball and foundation-rocking is now so all pervasive for the Opposition that they have no interest in serious debate.

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