Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent)

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Thirtieth Amendment of the Constitution (Houses of the Oireachtas Inquiries) Bill 2011. This Bill is an attempt to overcome the Abbeylara judgment which prevented the Oireachtas from carrying out effective investigations into matters of general public importance. There is no doubt but that all Members of this House want Oireachtas Committees to have the ability to carry out inquiries. The public expect we should be able to do so. I believe it is a vital part of a functioning democracy that the Oireachtas should carry out investigations.

We are now three years on from the collapse of the banking system in respect of which investigations are dragging on and on. The people do not believe anyone will ever be held to account for the destruction of our economy. The Supreme Court judgment in the Abbeylara case ensured that the Oireachtas could not inquire into matters it wished to investigate. The wording of the amendment deals largely with the issues in the Supreme Court judgment. However, I am concerned about the issue of bias. The judgment deals with the issue of institutional bias. That is where the Houses of the Oireachtas are in themselves inherently biased. I can foresee a situation whereby a Government with a large majority could commence inquiries for political ends, in respect of which institutional bias could again arise.

I am concerned about objective bias, namely, an individual member of a committee of inquiry being challenged as being biased. I believe this could possibly arise based on their comments in this House. Such words could be claimed to indicate a bias even though they may not relate to the particular issue being inquired into. Is prior political stances on the HSE or banks evidence of undermining a fair and balanced hearing and an assessment of evidence being presented into an inquiry? I imagine that there will be extensive debate in the House on matters of public importance before a decision is taken on whether to establish a committee of inquiry. This issue could therefore arise.

One of the judges involved in the Abbeylara judgment stated that a committee member in such an inquiry may not sit, if in all the circumstances, a reasonable person has reasonable apprehension of bias, namely, an apprehension that the committee member might not bring an impartial and unprejudiced mind to the hearing. This would refer to considerations relating to matters prior to the establishment of the committee. I can foresee a situation whereby people with financial power who are being inquired into could take the committee to court to have members removed because of objective bias. The wording of the proposed referendum does not address this issue.

I appeal to the Minister to come up with a formula to ensure this will not happen. The taking of an oath by committee members on commencement of an inquiry may overcome the issue of bias. When appointed, members of the Judiciary take an oath and the issue of bias in their work does not arise as they take their roles and responsibilities seriously. I am sure that Members of this House will treat such a matter with equal seriousness and will treat the work of such committees with the importance demanded.

I support the legislation. I ask that the issue of bias, in particular objective bias, be addressed by the Minister prior to further Stages of this legislation passing through the Oireachtas. I also suggest that we take more time to tease out all of these issues so as to ensure they are fully clarified prior to putting the referendum before the people. I have no doubt that the people of Ireland would be happy, should it be necessary to continue this debate further, for this referendum to be held on a date other than that on which the Presidential election will be held.

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