Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)

The important issue for the survivors is, as everybody says, to have an efficient process and to be able to help them, as far as possible, in this way. There is currently no demand from the victim support groups to move from the Department of Education and Science to the Department of the Taoiseach. It is typical of other tribunals that the relevant Department is the sponsoring Department. To date, the Department has invested considerable manpower and resources in ensuring all the needs of the commission are met. The Department and the commission have a strong, positive relationship and any information sought by the latter has been provided.

The Department takes on board the comments and criticisms of Ms Justice Laffoy. It is interesting to note, however, that the third interim report of the commission included a comment which reflected favourably on the Department. It noted that some of the requests submitted had lacked clarity and that the Department was given insufficient time to deal with some of them. Nevertheless, the Department accepts that relations were not as good as they should have been. This has been rectified and all concerned are now happy with the current working relationship.

Acceptance of the amendment would cause delay because it would require a whole new set of officials to start again from scratch. The system is working well and dedicated staff in the Department are working well with the commission and groups. I do not propose to accept the amendment because it is not necessary and would not assist the survivors in the process.