Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thought it would take me a minute to give the expression of sympathy at the beginning, which I did not get. However, I take the Ceann Comhairle's point.

The problem is that this process will take much longer. I am curious that the Taoiseach used the phrase ,"while it is intended", in respect of setting up a commission of investigation. Is he committed to setting up such a commission or not? We need to know. Dr. Scally's report states one may be established, whereas the foreword refers to his work as a scoping inquiry prior to the establishment of a commission of investigation.

I have great time for Dr. Scally. I do not know the man, but he is working earnestly and so on. However, a statutory inquiry provides teeth. There is a pattern here. The Taoiseach's own Minister did not know what was going on about this issue because he had not been told. The Committee of Public Accounts had to drag fairly basic documentation out of the Department and the HSE. Officials had been discussing this for two years, yet information could not be made available to the Oireachtas or the Minister until the committee forced it out of them. We now have 4,000 documents that were sent over two days in an unsearchable format. Does that not ring alarm bells? We need to consider - and I ask the Taoiseach to consider this - whether it would be more effective to roll it into a statutory commission, rather than waiting for until November or December to get to the end of this inquiry and moving on to a commission of investigation.

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