Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

This issue has been dealt with on a number of occasions and, as I said then, the position of the Department of Education and Science is very similar to other Departments sponsoring tribunals of inquiry, whether the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, etc. I know the Deputies have said it is quite different in so far as the Department of Education and Science is almost a respondent.

We took on board the criticisms from Ms Justice Laffoy and enormous change has taken place in the meantime, which has been recognised by the commission chairman, Mr. Justice Ryan. He recognises that the Department is responding very quickly to his requests for resources etc. There has been no difficulty in the relationship between the Department and the judge and the commission. It should also be noted that the third report acknowledged that some of the difficulties were caused, or were contributed to, by the commission in that, for example, there was not sufficient clarity in the direction as to what was sought or insufficient time was being allowed for compliance.

Undoubtedly, things have moved on, including from the point of view of the money being provided. Some €10 million has been given to the commission for administration costs and a further €21 million has been provided for administration in the Estimates for this year and for the next two years. The commission has a staff of 53, all of whom were put in place very quickly at its request. We have also addressed any of the recommendations it has made to address any difficulties in the past. The Department recognises that this requires dedicated, substantial staffing and administrative resources, which have all been put in place to ensure we comply with the discovery directions.

The role of the Department as a respondent is quite clear and separate from it being a sponsoring body. Being the sponsor does not interfere with it taking its responsibilities very seriously. We are working very closely with the commission. It would only serve to delay matters further if this was to move to a different Department. We all want to ensure the work is carried out speedily and efficiently and that is what is happening at present. There is a good working relationship between us. It serves no purpose to try to move this to the Department of the Taoiseach because it would only be for optics and would affect the work of the commission.

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