Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Many of the issues raised from time to time are both mischievous and frivolous. I would like to see the counterargument. I do not see where there is a difficulty. Whenever there is a controversy many people write in complaining about this, that and the other. I get letters if a Member from either side of the House does practically anything nonsensical. Much of this is merely jumping on the Members and we should be careful of it. If somebody does something wrong, there is an investigation and that is grand.

However, I would like to see the argument. I have not seen the argument and I cannot think of a situation where there was some issue. I would hate to think there would be somebody every Monday morning in the future going through all 40 of the weekend newspapers to see what letter they would send out to some Member of the House about this, that or the other. If that is the kind of business envisaged, I would be totally against it.

If the commission could convince me that there was a case where some member of the public might be afraid to write into the commission about a complaint, I will listen to that argument.

I just do not see the argument. I see the capacity to be witch hunting Members of this House in the future and, frankly, I have been on the wrong side of that a number of times. We in the House should be careful about the future. I would like to see people make the case.

I set up the Ethics in Public Office Commission. I argued for it. I brought it together. At the time I had many arguments trying to convince others to do it, and that was left out of it. It should not be an extended power. In some of these matters, when we are reviewing it at other times, we should perhaps be looking at limiting it.

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