Dáil debates

Tuesday, 1 December 2015

5:45 pm

Photo of Enda KennyEnda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Deputy Gerry Adams asked me a question about the Constitutional Convention reports that were not discussed here. I gave him an undertaking that we would have those debates before the House rises for this session and we will do that.

In regard to the question of the climate change Bill, the amendments from the Seanad will be taken on Thursday morning here in the Dáil and I would expect that the Deputy will be able to make reference to the question of the meeting in Paris of the different political leaders and the roadmap set out for climate justice, climate change and so on.

In regard to IBRC, the Government did consider that this morning. There are a number of issues involved. First, I thank the leaders of the Opposition parties for the letters I received from them but the question of confidentiality, the issue of legal privilege, access to information from the Central Bank and the Stock Exchange, the revisions to the terms of reference, the definition of capital loss, the liquidation of Siteserv plc, conflicts of interest in the appointment of an additional member to the commission, the management of the workload, the resources required and the timeframe for reporting are all matters that were raised in the interim report of Mr. Justice Cregan and which in many cases were referred to by the Opposition parties in their response. I have considered all of these issues and arising from that as there are clearly a number of difficulties and complications, I intend to set out, as I see it, what they are, in writing, later this week for the Opposition leaders. We then need to meet on that issue with an opportunity for the Deputies to give their views as to how the wish of the Government and the Oireachtas can be followed through to achieve our intention of having complete transparency and accountability about the questions that were raised and about the reason for the commission being set up in the first place.

In regard to the matter of the Eighth amendment of the Constitution, I was referring here to individual party positions and I have set out what my own party's position will be. Clearly, if the people decide to re-elect the Government, as is their prerogative to do so or not as the case might be, it would be, of course, appropriate that there would be a full-scale involvement of everybody in respect of any formation of a citizens' assembly or citizens' convention.

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