Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour) | Oireachtas source

We asked Behaviour & Attitudes for a complete analysis and presented the findings to a public expenditure and reform committee which had a very robust debate. It was important to look behind why people made the decision, particularly if anybody was thinking of running the referendum again. My judgment on this is that we must prove the House capable of doing the normal work of Parliament. I have again heard people ask that a judge do it, or the bizarre notion of having the inquiry done by a jury of 12 men and women good and just. We have a responsibility. This is what parliaments do. They hold governments and the institutions of the state to account. We must step up to the mark on this and this is the framework within which we can do it.

Deputy Ross spoke about the heart of our democracy. Not only was our economy broken in 2008 but our polity was also broken. People's confidence in these places to do their business must be restored, and we are well on the way to doing this. The legislation on whistleblowing, which I published today, is part of this.

With regard to the comments of the former DPP, I do not accept we cannot have inquiries. In the interview he instanced the risk that people would use it to grandstand. We must have the discipline and regulation to ensure this does not happen if we are to ask people to have faith in the capacity of Parliament to hold the institutions and the servants of the State to account in the future.

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