Thomas Byrne (Meath East, Fianna Fail)

My party has established tribunals and co-operated with them. Those who were unfortunate enough to appear as witnesses, which thank God I never had to do, played their parts properly, as I am sure the tribunal will find.

Tribunals were established under the 1921 Act to investigate matters of urgent public importance. There is no doubt that the issues referred to the Mahon tribunal were important but people began to wonder about it when its inquiries veered away from its terms of reference. However, we cannot criticise the tribunal for doing its job.

The failure until now to deal with the Tribunals of Inquiry Bill 2005 is largely due to Opposition attacks. When we first introduced the Bill, newspaper headlines accused us of attempting to shut down the tribunals. This was a misleading accusation which is no longer being made. The legislation is now welcomed as an attempt to reform the procedures of tribunals. The Bill provides a modern framework which will govern all aspects of a tribunal from its establishment by the Oireachtas to the publication of its report. It will require the chairman of a tribunal to conduct the inquiry in a cost-effective and efficient manner.

Researchers for tribunals do not need to be paid hundreds of euro per day to read documents. The tribunals should employ college interns who would do this work for free. The United States Supreme Court employs interns who are certainly not paid several hundred dollars per day. The researchers are in effect photocopying documents or checking them for legal privilege. Given that only a tiny percentage of these documents will in fact be legally privileged, it is outrageous that people are paid several hundred euro per day to check them. When I worked, I did this. I was a discovery donkey when I was a solicitor's apprentice.

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