Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the Minister trying to clarify, but it changes nothing. The fact is, as I said earlier, it will be a commission set up by the Government of the day and instead of the Government making the decision, it will be setting up a new quango of some sort. Who will pay for all this? What will this cost the State? It could be quite frightening. Irrespective of whether it is the HSE or the Judiciary, every sector needs tightening up.

I have raised in the Dáil on numerous occasions the case of a gentleman in Skibbereen. He was terribly wronged and is suffering severely. In 2010 a State body took a case against him. He is trying to get proof from the Courts Service of the registrar who attended on the day because the case should be null and void if no registrar attended. This man is seriously ill; he has gone through a terrible time. He said to me even when I spoke about it here recently, "If they'd just guided me to somewhere where I could find out, I'd greatly appreciate the truth. All I want is the truth." He has been in my office on numerous occasions and I have tried to make representations on his behalf. Was there a registrar in the court on the day? No one can identify the registrar to him and the case is null and void if there was not. Unfortunately nobody will clarify that for him.

The Minister, Deputy Ross, is on a journey of glorification and it is sad that it has come to this. I am surprised that Fine Gael is supporting it. I wonder what the Minister himself and many other people would say. In the past few months hundreds of people have said to me, "Minister Ross is a different man from the man we all read about." Unfortunately this also looks very different from that.

The Minister should concentrate more on his portfolio. In transport, our roads are in a shocking condition. The main funding for tourism is now gone even though there was a promise that would not happen. Even with sports, he told us there was absolutely no political interference in the national lottery sports funding and then we find that €180,000 has been allocated to a cricket club in his constituency.

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