Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to get the opportunity to speak about this today because this is serious. These tribunals will have to be banned completely and gotten rid of because they are costing the State millions and maybe billions. There is no law that is being meted out to the people who have done wrong back over the years. The people to whom they have done the most wrong are the taxpayers, the hard-working people around the country who are out in the dark in the morning, who do not come home until after dark at night and who are paying savage amounts of tax.

We hear that this tribunal or investigation will cost €100 million to go after the figure of €8 million which is ridiculous, as previous speakers said. If that was a business, a company, a businessman or any single entity, they would not go after it like that. I am saying to the Minister of State that this should be delegated to An Garda Síochána. There should be a special unit in An Garda Síochána to deal with this kind of carry on because there is much too much of it. Denis O’Brien’s name was mentioned. He was totally cleared and exonerated from any wrongdoing. I do not know who initiated this investigation, but this kind of carry on will have to stop, because the taxpayer is paying for every inch of it.

There are treasonable offences going on. There must be someone to look after the Government because it has a write-down as well. Irish Sugar was sold and at the same time a factory was erected over in Bulgaria. I was told today that one of the power plants in the midlands that was closed down has been put up in Poland. To think that the people here are on the road every day now trying to pay multiples of what it is worth for diesel and petrol. The extra tax is going into the coffers of the Government.

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