Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)

I would like to propose an amendment to the Schedule to No. 5 on today's Order Paper, so that the reference to "Tribunals of Inquiry Bill 2005 — Order for Second Stage" is deleted. This motion is similar to motions tabled in the House after previous general elections, seeking to restore to the Order Paper Bills which had commenced progress or had been published in the previous Dáil. The list of Bills before the House is not controversial, with one exception — the Tribunals of Inquiry Bill 2005, which would enable the Government, for stated reasons and following a resolution of both Houses of the Oireachtas, to suspend or dissolve a tribunal of inquiry. The Labour Party believes the Bill should not be restored to the Order Paper at this stage. The Bill was originally published in November 2005. Nothing was done with it and no effort was made to progress it until suddenly in October of last year in the immediate aftermath of the disclosure that the Mahon tribunal was investigating a range of payments received by the Taoiseach from wealthy businessmen when he was Minister for Finance in 1994, the former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Michael McDowell, decided that the Bill was urgent and should be taken. As a result of strong objections raised by the Labour Party and by the Green Party, the Government was forced to drop its plans to take the Bill last October. Nothing has been done with it since, but as it is included in the list of Bills to be restored to the Order Paper, it now appears that the new Government is determined to go ahead with it.

Restoring the Bill to the Order Paper at this stage would send out all the wrong messages to the public. It will rightly ask why the Bill is being taken now at a time when the Taoiseach is about to give evidence before the Mahon tribunal. The Bill must also be seen against repeated complaints by the Taoiseach and his supporters of unfair treatment at the hands of the tribunal. Last year, Fianna Fáil Ministers made totally unfounded allegations that the tribunal was involved in the leaking of documents relating to the Taoiseach's finances to The Irish Times. Some people might also see the restoration of the Bill at this point as an attempt to influence or even intimidate the tribunals and those working for them and the Bill will be seen as a sword of Damocles hanging over the heads of the tribunals.

Public confidence in politics and political standards is already low. At this point, we do not need the pressure in respect of this measure. The Labour Party strongly recommends to the Government that the Tribunals of Inquiry Bill 2005 be deleted from the list of Bills to be restored. I will move my amendment.

See this speech in context