Jim Higgins (Fine Gael)

I join my colleaugue, Senator Ulick Burke, in calling for a debate on the IDA report. When we joined the EEC in 1973, the expectation was that the rising tide of Social and Cohesion Funds would lift all boats but it has not. From the point of view of the Border, midlands and western region, we have been stuck in the shallows and, as the figures published yesterday prove conclusively, we are not getting anything like the largesse of which we were told.

The second issue is an announcement last week by the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform that he was to review the workings and costs of tribunals of inquiry. That is urgently needed. Yesterday the newspapers told us that the Flood tribunal could run for another 15 to 20 years. Considering the costs involved therein, it is time to apply the brakes or certainly to conduct a review.

On the issue of costs, in a tribunal in which I am involved, the Morris tribunal, there is separate legal representation, each consisting of a junior counsel, a senior counsel and a solicitor, for the Garda Commissioner, the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors and the Garda Representative Association. That is a frightening extravagance. It is exorbitant. They have a commonality of interests and they should be represented by one legal team.