Charlie O'Connor (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)

I am getting involved in something now, about which perhaps I should not have said anything.

Deputies Rabbitte, Brian Hayes and myself brought forward a joint matter on the Adjournment last night, which is proof that we work well together. We and the other colleagues in the constituency would want to support St. Joseph's special school in Balrothery. I apologise for hijacking the debate in that regard.

I am happy to make a brief contribution on this Private Members' business, the Committees of the Houses of the Oireachtas (Powers of Inquiry) Bill 2010. Other colleagues, including Deputy Thomas Byrne, have covered issues the detail of which I do not want to cover. We have had an interesting day in the Dáil and I will not rehearse any of the earlier debate. I wonder how the SDLP delegation led by Ms Margaret Richie, MLA, whom the Chair welcomed, found that business.

The business before us is important. While we are all entitled to express our point of view and make our views known on this Bill, we should compliment the Labour Party on raising this issue and bringing forward this Bill. The matter will proceed from there.

Other speakers made the point that the main purpose of the Bill is to address the legal implications of the findings of the Supreme Court in the Abbeylara case for inquiries to be undertaken by the committees of the Oireachtas. Deputy Ardagh was the then Chairman of the Joint Committee on Justice, Equality, Defence and Women's Rights and he did a fine job in that regard. The jury is still out on that episode and I am sure many people throughout the country and in this House would want to see those issues dealt with.

We are advised that this Bill does not adequately address the complex legal issues which arose from the decisions of the Supreme Court on its ruling in the Abbeylara case regarding the powers of Oireachtas committees to conduct inquiries or to make findings of fact and conclusions as to personal culpability of an individual not a Member of the Oireachtas. The Bill, as drafted, might then be open to legal challenge, a point other colleagues have made.

While the Bill may present a starting point for this process, which is important and I am happy to acknowledge that, further examination of work will clearly need to be done to fully address shortcomings in the Bill, particularly regarding sections 4 and 9. I suspect Deputy Rabbitte would be very much part of that debate.

Section 4(3) allows for a committee of the Oireachtas not to be inhibited in the performance of its functions by the possibility of liability being inferred. It also allows for such provisions in section 8 regarding the performance of investigators. The advice from the Attorney General is that these provisions require further consideration relating to the issue of liability being inferred.

Other colleagues, including Deputy Thomas Byrne, referred to the banking inquiry. The Government has already decided that an independent statutory commission of investigation be established to identify, examine and report on the causes of the systematic failures in the Irish banking sector following completion of reports by the governor of the Central Bank and by other independent persons. The Governor of the Central Bank is due to address a meeting in Cavan next week of the British-Irish Parliamentary Assembly, of which I am a member. That will be interesting. Perhaps that kind of appearance should also be duplicated here in Leinster House because I suspect many colleagues would like to discuss those issues with our leader.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for allowing me to say a few words on this Bill. Deputy Rabbitte has done fine work on it, which is a starting point. I suspect he understood what the Government's reaction to it might be, but I wish him well. I look forward to further debate on this subject.

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