Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

This issue does not arise directly from the question. I raised it in the reply because it was appropriate to do so. The Government only made the decision on this today. There was no lobbying on this issue. The original dates were fixed by conversation between the Attorney General and the ten chairmen of the tribunals on dates of completion. If there is some new work under the terms of reference, something comes to light, there are delays because of litigation or some other difficulty arises, the work cannot be completed. All these matters arose in this case and the chairman stated that to complete the work efficiently and to retain the team, that time was required.

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