Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)

The Taoiseach is deliberately confusing the outcome of the Abbeylara decision because it is convenient to members of Government and also to those in the public service that they are not held properly accountable when things go wrong. Would the Taoiseach not agree that if an Oireachtas committee is empowered to investigate the manner in which public funds are spent or the manner in which public policy is being applied and if it has a full and proper hearing with the principles of natural and constitutional justice respected, it is in the public interest that people be held to account and it is not in the public interest that essentially redacted or censored opinions are published, which ensure that nothing can possibly be contained in the report that reflects badly on an individual's reputation?

Would the Taoiseach not agree that the Abbeylara judgment essentially castrated the powers of Oireachtas committees and that Oireachtas committees have lesser capacity to hold people to account than have committees at Westminster, or in many of the Parliaments across Europe or in the United States? Would the Taoiseach not agree that it is time to blow the cobwebs out of our political system and ensure there is true accountability - not a lynch mob or a pandering to public opinion? This House and committees of this House should be empowered to do a job in the public interest and for that to occur we need a constitutional referendum to address the consequences of the Abbeylara judgment.

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