Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

I again emphasise it is a matter for the Oireachtas, not the Government, to decide on any change of policy on the tribunal or anything to do with it. Were the Government, as Government, at any time to have indicated or, in view of the correspondence that it was in receipt of, to proceed with a proposal which meant the replacement of counsel, counsel resigning or the sole member resigning, or were anything to happen in that sphere as a result of any proactive step by Government, I can only imagine what the response of the Opposition would have been or certainly what the political charges would have been in respect of that. The Government is in a somewhat invidious position here in the absence of an agreed position by everyone in the Oireachtas as to what should happen in any given set of circumstances.

I do not have the correspondence before me now and I do not wish to go into that aspect of the matter. The point I am making is that the Government was anxious not to do anything that would be portrayed in any way as some sort of political interference by Government, as Government, into a tribunal of inquiry that was established by the Oireachtas, and that is something that would be understood by everybody.

It is a matter for the Oireachtas at any time to decide how matters should go. I am merely indicating here that my understanding of the situation from correspondence from the sole member is that the tribunal is in a position to finalise the second report, upon which the Oireachtas awaits and in respect of some matters that were entered into.

I agree the duration of the tribunal has been something which, as a matter of policy, the Oireachtas has sought to address for the future in terms of different methods other than the Act of the 1920s under which tribunals of inquiry are established as means by which we can investigate matters of public interest or urgent public importance but I am not in a position to state anything further about the workings of the tribunal. It has been a costly exercise.

I would also make the point that in 2006 the Comptroller and Auditor General's report pointed out that the tribunal drew attention to the downstream gains to the Exchequer arising from its establishment and the conduct of its proceedings and noted from evidence to it in 2006 from the Chairman of the Revenue Commissioners that as well as specific sums of some €8.5 million recovered from individuals directly connected with the tribunals' proceedings, the work had contributed to the cultivation of a climate or culture of disclosure in financial and fiscal areas.

That being said, we do not know what the third party costs will be. That is a matter that must be adjudged now in the light of recent Supreme Court judgments and must be taken into account as well. It is not possible for me to be any more specific than that other than to state that these are matters for the Oireachtas to consider at any time.

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