Alex White (Labour)

I have not at any stage thought it was appropriate or desirable that we should second-guess the proceedings of the Mahon tribunal. I have always taken that view sternly and carefully. Now that the Taoiseach has seen fit to go to the High Court as part of what appears to be an unrelenting attack on the Mahon tribunal, I ask the Cathaoirleach to facilitate a debate in this House and that the Taoiseach be invited here. I do not think we have had the pleasure of the Taoiseach's presence in the House since we sat last September. I ask the Leader and the Cathaoirleach to invite him to the House in order that we can have a debate on the importance of upholding and defending the integrity of the Mahon tribunal which was set up by an order of this and the other House in October 1997. I am holding a copy of the motion moved by the current Leader, Senator Donie Cassidy, on 8 October 1997 stating that Seanad Éireann resolved to set up what is now the Mahon tribunal. It is extraordinary we have reached this point after all the debate we have had and after all the requests and demands by members of the Government and their supporters that we let the Mahon tribunal do its work. How many times have we heard it said that we should let the tribunal do its work? The Taoiseach does not wish to allow the Mahon tribunal to do its work. He has now taken the extraordinary step of drawing into the debate an important principle——