Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)

I welcome the opportunity to support amendment No. 1, as colleagues on this side of the House are doing. One aspect of that amendment refers to the opportunity to discuss the procedures and practices involved in investigating matters mandated by Oireachtas Éireann. This is a fundamental element of the entire debate, namely, the right to comment. If one were to judge by some of the statements coming from the Opposition benches, one of the rights which it is proposed to circumscribe is the right of people on this side to hold an opinion or to express it. It is a fundamental right and one that any of us who values human dignity or human rights would certainly defend. The fundamental question to which members of the tribunal would seek an answer from this House is exactly what the Oireachtas requires and expects of it. The original motion setting up the tribunal set that very clearly and unequivocally.

Unfortunately, in the interim, there were occasions when that mandate was not observed in the manner that it ought to have been. Are Members suggesting that during those times people who had reservations about the rights of citizens and how they were dealt with ought to have remained silent? Even if they were, they certainly have the findings of the High Court and the Supreme Court to rely on if they wished to have something to validate their concerns. One of the statements of an eminent judge was to the effect that the tribunal was established in 1997. Some of us who have been here prior to that time and who have seen the Oireachtas quite rightly set up a number of tribunals tend to forget how long it is since this particular tribunal was set up. I doubt if any Member of either House in 1997 anticipated that this tribunal would still be sitting 11 years later and, apparently, it is not much nearer to reaching the conclusions that it was mandated to reach.

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