Shane Ross (Independent)

Like other Members of this House, it is welcome that the Minister for Finance is initiating an investigation into what happened in the Department of Finance in recent years. Further to what Senator Regan said, it is inconceivable that this could happen without the Taoiseach being a key witness and being investigated. Provided this is a genuine investigation into what happened - I believe it is - the important thing is that people are involved. I became a little suspicious when I read the supposed terms of reference and came across the words "structures" and "processes". So many key people were involved in making key decisions that not only should the Taoiseach be subject to investigation and scrutiny and accountability, so also should the mandarins. A light needs to be shone on the activities of the individual officials in the Department. We do not know what happens in the most powerful Department in the State. We do not know who makes what decisions about what and what sorts of guys they are. While I do not want to persecute people or be vindictive, we should be able to see the people concerned in public answering questions on what happened to ensure it never happens again. These are very powerful people - they are more powerful than most Ministers. It is important that individuals are put under pressure, as well as having processes examined. I do not want to just see the report come out with a map of how the structures work and suggest moving a few things around and everything will be resolved. Accountability is important; mandarins should be answerable.

I would like to tackle the issue of opinion polls. I cannot for the life of me understand why we need a debate on opinion polls. I am staggered at why politicians always want to talk about opinion polls. Opinion polls are merely a flash of opinion at a time. They provide entertainment, which is not a sin by the way, and information. If members of a party from any side want to get their knickers in a twist about opinion polls and do what they want them to do, that is up to them. It is their rather immature reaction to an individual poll.