Colm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute. I welcome the report and, as my colleague indicated, it is really important to remember that at the heart of what we are talking about in the report are people and victims who have had horrendous experiences. We must welcome the report and recommendations therein.

I will address one or two very important aspects relating to what we as a Parliament are doing today in discussing the O'Higgins report. In particular I welcome the findings relating to Mr. Alan Shatter, who is a former Deputy and Minister. He was an excellent reforming politician throughout his career and the findings in this report are to be warmly welcomed, particularly regarding the manner in which he dealt with issues as they arose.

One of the key aspects we must consider today is that we are spending a large amount of time dealing with leaks, partial leaks and comments originating from the process of creating the report. A commission of investigation was established by the House as an alternative to having a tribunal of inquiry, for example, and the O'Higgins investigation has done an excellent job in showing how we can speedily and effectively deal with issues that arise. It is therefore very disappointing on one level that certain Deputies have used partial leaks - some have used very malicious leaks - that have individually targeted one or two people in the process. This will inevitably lead to the undermining of the entire commission of investigation process. As we debate the issue today, we have already heard calls for a new commission of investigation for other allegations. What would the people going into that feel about this process and conversations that they may have, which they believe to be private and part of the process with legal representation, if those conversations ended up as part of a political slanging match or opportunistic debate? As public representatives, we must be really careful that in a process of politics and justifiably considering matters, we do not end with the real casualty being the commission of investigation process.

The O'Higgins process has served us well. It is a good process. I welcome its findings and it shows the way we can deal with this issue. We need to be very careful that we do not end up causing this whole process to be undermined such that people will not be willing to participate in future commissions of investigation because of what we do as Deputies in this House.

The other aspect I would like to make very clear is that we also debated against a background of violent criminal activity which has taken place over recent weeks and months, particularly in our capital city. We must put on record, as always, our gratitude to the members of An Garda Síochána, from the Commissioner downwards, through all the ranks, for the daily work they do in targeting the vile scourge of gangland crime in particular, which we have seen in recent weeks. It is incumbent on us to remember that the vast majority of members of the Garda go to work daily to tackle situations which we as the public would find too frightening to want to deal with every day. We owe them our support and we need to recognise in particular that the Garda Commissioner has done an excellent job in utilising the force and its resources to tackle the scourge of crime, especially gangland crime. In that broader context, we need to be very careful as parliamentarians to welcome the O'Higgins report but also to realise that the commission of investigation process is one that can serve us well. We should not undermine it.

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