Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

The draft order is accompanied by a statement of reasons for establishing the commission, as required by the Commissions of Investigation Act, and a similar motion will be brought before Seanad Éireann. Under the provisions of the Act, the order establishing the commission must specify the matter that is to be investigated. The draft order which is before the House describes it in the following terms: "matters relating to and surrounding the making of a confession by Dean Lyons (deceased) about the deaths of Mary Callinan and Sylvia Shiels in March 1997 in Grangegorman, Dublin 7". The original phrase was "matters ... arising from the making of a confession" but the phrase "surrounding the making of a confession" is considered to be preferable because it deals with matters before the confession was made, not merely after it was made.

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