Brian Hayes (Fine Gael)

I move amendment No. 13:

In page 11, subsection (2), line 8, to delete "shall" and substitute "may".

This amendment seeks to delete the word "shall" and substitute "may" in reference to the conduct of investigations. As drafted, the section appears to make the facilitation of co-operation mandatory. This could require the commissions to travel to any destination at the request of a witness. At one stage, the Flood tribunal sat in Guernsey for a few days. The Minister of State will recall that when the tribunal returned, it had to read into the record all the information it had gleaned in Guernsey for the best part of a week or two, which seemed to be a ridiculous situation at the time. While relocating an investigation may be justified in some circumstances, I fail to understand why the commission should be compelled to facilitate co-operation without limitations. As it is currently constituted, there are virtually no limitations in respect of the notion of co-operation. The amendment seeks to give greater freedom to the commission to distinguish and determine what witnesses it wants to take evidence from. As currently drafted, it appears automatically mandatory that commissions will have to go to the four corners of the earth to interview witnesses in respect of modules that come before them. That absolute obligation should not be in the Bill. The Minister should re-examine this section.

As the Minister of State rightly said, the objective of the Bill is to give flexibility and make the new commissions realise they have an obligation to get to the truth as soon as possible. We do not want to tie their hands in such a way that they will have to follow up every single witness. As this section is currently drafted in respect of the conduct of investigations, it may well be that every witness will have to be followed up, irrespective of the weight and importance of the information he or she provides. In that context, I am moving this amendment as a means of facilitating the commission by giving it the maximum flexibility necessary to do its work. I would be interested to hear the Minister of State's reply.