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

We will have to work with organisations such as Threshold to be in a position to have the capacity to support people who could be in difficulty in the months ahead with either rent or mortgage arrears, or with evictions. There is currently a moratorium on evictions and a freeze on rents. As restrictions have been lifted, issues with those will arise. As I said earlier, the ESRI report will be important in that regard and we need to work with all concerned. Much work has been done in recent years. The numbers did not turn out to be as high as people thought. We have one of the better records in Europe with regard to the number of repossessions. In my experience, if people engage early with either the banks or Members, we can often intervene to try to create and find resolutions. When people leave it too late, one ends up with a court case from which it can often be difficult to pull back. Early engagement with agencies and various non-governmental organisations that have been supportive in this field is critical. We have to make sure they have the capacity to deal with whatever challenges emerge.

Deputies raised a number of points. Regarding the tribunal of inquiry and various Estimates, there is concern about continuing escalating costs. To be fair to Mr. Justice Cregan's Irish Bank Resolution Corporation inquiry, the inquiry will cost between €11 million and €14 million. Department officials believe it could go to €30 million. It is important to point out that once the Oireachtas decides to establish an inquiry, it is then totally independent. I recall all the leaders in the Dáil looking for this inquiry in 2015 and agreeing on a bespoke Act in 2017 to facilitate the establishment of the IBRC inquiry, yet it is now 2020 and it will go to the end of the year. It is unclear whether a conclusion will be arrived at by the end of the year. That means that the Oireachtas must give far greater deliberation to the establishment of inquiries and commissions of investigation in the future. We have to be clear-minded about it because once we do so, there is no point in complaining later about the costs and how long an inquiry has been going on, or saying somebody should be in control. The minute any Government Minister or the Taoiseach tries to intervene, there will be an accusation that it is an attempt to undermine the objectivity and independence of the inquiry.

A point to take away from this Estimate is about the communications spend of €20 million more than was expected at the beginning of the year. The Government Information Service in the Department has 16 or 17 staff. They are civil servants who have been extremely busy over the past six months. They deserve credit for the amount of work they have put in and the logistical operation they have engineered, including all the press conferences they have organised and their co-ordination of communications. I was going to bring in some posters and such to demonstrate the non-party political nature of the GIS, which would be a concern of some Deputies. Some Deputies have articulated that about the roadmap and so on, and it is an important point.

I would like people to give the shared unit a fair shake, irrespective of their particular positions, which they are entitled to. We want to develop good background work and research on the issue of how we develop a shared island in the future, and to look at it in a considered way with detailed policy, as opposed to all having rhetoric that we like to engage in from time to time. There is an opportunity to move things on in a consensual way as well as we can. That depends on others too.

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