Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. I only heard about that the other day and was quite surprised to hear it, quite frankly. It is something I know the Minister for Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth is now aware of and it will be a decision for him as to whether it makes sense to further extend the term of the commission. It is important to say once again that the mother and baby homes commission is independent of Government. It was established by the Oireachtas. It is not controlled by the Government or a creature of Government. Commissions, by their very nature, just like tribunals, are independent bodies. Perhaps one of the flaws in the process is an independent body like a commission can spend five years hearing evidence, examining evidence and making its report but then is not there to explain it. One is then left, as a Government Minister, trying to explain a report that one had no role in actually drawing up. I do not blame the members of the commission for that in any way but if we are going to do another inquiry on a similar issue, we need to look at a better way to do it.

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