Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 1:

To delete all words after "That" and substitute the following:

Dáil Éireann having regard to the fact that existing Tribunals of Inquiry established by the Oireachtas have not completed the entirety of their work, declines the second reading of the Tribunals of Inquiry Bill 2005.

The Bill and the circumstances that surround its origin and timing tell us everything we need to know about the Government. It suggests an abundance of arrogance and a fair measure of deviousness, together with a disdain for democratic norms. These all result from its having been in power for far too long.

The justification used by the Government for its efforts to empower itself to shut down tribunals is to wring its hands and refer, as the Minister did, to a huge level of costs and an inordinate waste of taxpayers' money. We have been treated to the appearance of bizarre amounts of euro in media reports on an almost daily basis and the implication is that it is the tribunals, rather than a depressed housing market and an inept and helpless Government, that are responsible for the economic downturn. The Government's newfound interest in saving taxpayers' money is fascinating, not to mention seriously overdue.

I wonder why we only hear of the Government's desire for financial prudence in respect of the health service and cutbacks relating thereto or the tribunals. I do not recall any desire for financial prudence being expressed in recent weeks in the context of ministerial salaries, which now outstrip those of the majority of world leaders, or when, a few years ago, the Government felt like buying a second ministerial jet at a cost of €50 million. There was no question of value for money for the taxpayer when the Government agreed to provide indemnity for religious orders at a total cost of €1.1 billion, when over €200 million was spent on PPARS or when the site for a new super-prison was bought for €30 million, twice the market value. The Government is happy to hand over €700,000 of Exchequer funds every year to pay for the storage of useless electronic voting machines that cost taxpayers over €50 million to purchase in the first instance. Each year, the Department of the Taoiseach spends just short of the average industrial wage to pay for the Taoiseach's make-up needs. Well over €1 million is spent each year on the services of special advisers who provide him with advice of a purely political nature that is given over and above that proffered by civil servants in his Department.

There is plenty of scope for belt-tightening in all of these areas. However, there is no evidence of a desire at Government level to engage in this. To date, the Government's efforts to save a few euro have centred on our beleaguered hospitals and on the tribunals at Dublin Castle.

Fine Gael recognises that the costs of tribunals must be addressed. This issue has been pursued in the House for some time. We are, however, concerned that the Government is using the costs issue as a smokescreen to disguise the fact that it wishes to suspend or shut down the Mahon tribunal before anything else unsavoury about the peculiar finances of Fianna Fáil and its leader enters the public domain.

Hard-pressed taxpayers also want to see their money spent in an appropriate manner. They do not want to pay for tribunals of indefinite duration. However, that is not to say they want the Taoiseach to be able to cast a shadow over judges and barristers who are legitimately investigating his personal finances, that they want newspaper editors jailed for printing information that is in the public interest or that they want normal democratic behaviour subverted to suit the needs of the Taoiseach and his Government. The constant drip-feed of information and speculation regarding the cost of tribunals is a rather subtle ploy by the Fianna Fáil Government and its associates to obfuscate the real issue at hand, namely, their belief that a particular tribunal is not dealing with a matter in a way that pleases them.

In the short debate that preceded Second Stage, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform made a telling admission when he stated that any tribunals already under way would not be subjected to a suspension order. He indicated that tribunals would not be suspended if there was a belief that they were going beyond their brief. I may have misquoted him but that is what I understood the Minister to have said.

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