Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick East, Labour)

We all accept the Minister is doing her best to ensure her Department complies with everything the commission requires and, as Deputy Enright said, we are not talking about the current Minister. However, we are talking about a principle whereby a Department is sponsoring a commission of inquiry in which it is directly involved and which is investigating it. We are concerned about that principle.

None of us in the Opposition wants to delay the operations of the commission but I do not see why transferring it to the Department of the Taoiseach would delay its operations in so far as there is agreement on what needs to be done. There has been a great deal of detailed consultation. I do not believe moving it to another Department would delay it. The principle of allowing a Department to be involved in investigating itself is a bad one. It is not something we should include in legislation in the future. The sponsoring Department should be at a distance from the activities being investigated. They are very serious activities in terms of the responsibilities of the Department in the past and its direct role in putting young people into institutions in which they were abused. The Department had that supervisory role and failed thousands of children. It is a serious matter of principle.

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