John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)

The Bill does no more than make explicit the existing implicit entitlement of the Oireachtas by resolution to dissolve a tribunal that it had established. The Tribunals of Inquiry Bill is based to a significant extent on the recommendations of the Law Reform Commission, which carried out a comprehensive examination of tribunal legislation and in May 2005 published its report on public inquiries, including tribunals of inquiry. The report provides a well reasoned and well informed basis for recommendations for reform. There are over 50 recommendations which are designed to ensure the efficient and effective management of tribunals and cover areas ranging from the establishment of tribunals, the setting of terms of reference for tribunals, membership of tribunals, procedures at tribunals, preparation and publication of reports of tribunals and, of course, an issue of major concern to the Government, namely, the costs, particularly the legal costs, of tribunals.

The Bill represents a comprehensive reform of the tribunal legislation. In summary, it contains the following significant features: the process for setting and amending terms of reference of a tribunal is clarified; within three months of its establishment, a tribunal will be required to produce a statement of estimated costs and duration of the tribunal which must be laid before both Houses of the Oireachtas — this statement must be subsequently amended after significant developments; the Government, for stated reasons and following a resolution of both Houses of the Oireachtas, will be able to suspend or dissolve a tribunal; provisions governing the taking of evidence, including a provision regarding the "reading-in" of evidence already available in written form and not disputed; the position with regard to the granting of legal representation before a tribunal is clarified to the effect that a relevant person must apply for representation and the tribunal will only grant the application where the person's legal or constitutional rights are likely to be significantly affected by the proceedings; the tribunal will state its opinion as to the numbers of the representation to be retained by a person that it will certify as being recoverable from the State; the responsible Minister will be able to request an interim report on the general progress of an inquiry, or of a particular aspect of an inquiry, from the tribunal——

See this speech in context