Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)

I share the views of some who believe we should opt for a more permanent type of statutory based investigation forum or whatever to investigate issues that require investigation as they arise from time to time in the public arena.

We should remember also that every time we set up a tribunal, it is an indictment of existing agencies set up to investigate matters in the tax, criminal or health areas. These agencies are supposed to find out what, why and how something happened in a particular area. Senator Brian Hayes made the point about the criminal investigative model and said that ideally tribunals should be involved only in examining systemic failure and how we can learn lessons for the future. There are different models, therefore, and we have to try to move away from the one model.