Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Regarding the completion of the work, I understand the entire work of the Moriarty tribunal, including the report, will be completed in the calendar year of 2007. As we have done in some of the other tribunals, on that basis it will be allowed to complete its work under the existing arrangements. I understand the public hearings are finished. I have been told by my officials it is possible there could be a limited number of days of public session hearings but that is a call for the tribunal.

The work on completion of the report has started or is about to start. The tribunal should be able to commence preparation of its report in a matter of weeks from now. It is not possible to indicate when the second part of this report will be finalised but it should completed in a matter of months. The entire tribunal work will be finished during the course of 2008.

We must respect the right of each sole member to exercise his discretion on what can be appropriately included by a tribunal in regard to a matter in advance of the determination of costs for third parties. Having regard to his anticipation of issues, he will have to adjudicate on them. I understand that at the end of the report the sole member will have to adjudicate on the costs and decide whether people co-operated. He will then make a decision on those costs and probably take submissions on the fees. I understand this will be certainly an issue.

Regarding the cost of the tribunal, I provided €10 million in this year's Estimates to cover the cost of the report, publication of it and some element of the award of legal costs as well as administrative costs and legal fees. However, it is inevitable that the settling of the claims for costs that will be awarded will almost certainly continue into 2008. I expect to have more specific insight into liability for the third party costs but it is unlikely I will have that information until the Estimates for 2008 are formulated.

The work will certainly be finished this year as well as probably some aspect of dealing with the third party costs but it is likely, according to the view of my accounting officers, that the decision to pay the full costs or to decide on it based on the disputes, arguments and submissions that may be made around those costs will go into next year.

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