Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

With regard to the correspondence we have received this morning from the sole member of the Moriarty tribunal, I welcome the fact that this letter has been sent to us. It arises from the suggestion that I made here on 11 May that the House might request Mr. Justice Moriarty to make an interim report to the House. While he draws a distinction between what would constitute an interim report I think he has set out for us some explanation as to why at least some of the delays in the working of the tribunal have taken place. He reminded us of the successive legal actions which were taken, including those by the late Mr. Haughey, which have delayed the progress of the tribunal. He has said he is breaking the remaining matter into two separate reports, one dealing with the money trail and a second dealing with the other matters. He is suggesting he is considering issuing a separate earlier report on the money trail and a later report on the other matters.

A number of points in this letter will need to be considered. Deputy Kenny has suggested to the Taoiseach that there might be a meeting of party leaders to discuss the letter. This is a good suggestion and I recommend it to the Taoiseach. I also think there needs to be a means by which the House itself can consider the letter as it is a letter addressed to the House on the tribunal established by the House and we need some means of addressing it. I appreciate we have just received the letter this morning but it does have to be considered. It is not something we can just simply note and move on.

With regard to the legislation which the Government has promised to allow for the transfer of the files from the HSE to the Gibbons-Shannon investigation, the Taoiseach has said this legislation will be before the House in a matter of weeks. The problem is that the House will only sit for a matter of weeks before the summer recess. Is it the Government's intention to have that legislation enacted so the investigation is not delayed further? If that legislation is not through before the summer recess, for example, the logic would be that these files cannot be transferred until the autumn and then there will be another delay. Or would the Taoiseach consider the suggestion that I made on Leaders' Questions that the investigation might be established under the commission of investigations legislation, which would allow it to proceed?

May I ask the Taoiseach about the comments that were made by the Financial Services Ombudsman? The latter is seeking power to exercise discretion to identify financial institutions he is investigating where the public interest so requires. Will the Government consider agreeing to that request in the context of the Central Bank Bill, which is before the House?

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