Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)

The Acting Chairman will be very impartial. I am quite sure that is the case.

We have a multiplicity of tribunals of inquiry that have cost multifarious millions of euro. While they had to be set up in the first place by the Houses of the Oireachtas, and they have done a good job, however ponderously, if it had been possible to ventilate these issues in the Parliament, there would have been no necessity for them in the first place.

I am not going to criticise members of the legal profession for becoming involved in something for which they were extraordinarily well paid. There will be another Bill before the House to deal with that matter in the not too distant future. However, I want to express the opinion brought to my attention by the general public, to the effect that in some cases it would appear the procedures are long drawn out, self-serving, ponderous and as a result extraordinarily expensive. In those circumstances a reluctance develops towards setting up tribunals and that is where this legislation has come from — because Ministers have expressed concern as regards why tribunals of inquiry should happen. The reason is that something is wrong that the public is concerned about which has to be addressed. As a result, this is what we have.

Incidentally, there was a parliamentary inquiry, which was overturned by the courts, to which I have not referred.

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