Timmy Dooley (Clare, Fianna Fail)

The only reason the report appeared today is because the motion was tabled. It would have been helpful if the Government accepted the situation and used the time available to respond to the motion to put the report before the House. The Government took the opportunity to hold a press conference today and share it with the media in order to undermine the motion.

I have no problem in principle with that. This Government was going to do things differently, with a far greater level of transparency and it was going to clean up the act. However, it is politics as usual from where I am sitting. Instead of independent inquiries carried out by external experts with no vested interest in the structures involved, the Government decided on a structure of internal departmental inquiries. These inquiries were undertaken on seven local authorities, six of which were under the control of Fine Gael and Labour.

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