Denis O'Donovan (Fianna Fail)

I wish to add my voice in support of the Bill. I compliment the Minister on taking on board certain matters raised in the House and returning to us with amended legislation, which indicates the capacity of the Minister to accept amendments, particularly the amendment raised in a heartfelt and sincere way by Senator Zappone.

I congratulate the Minister as I received an e-mail stating he will put in statutory form the vetting of people dealing with children. This is a welcome move and was an issue dealt with by the Joint Committee on the Constitutional Amendment on Children. I thank the Minister for bringing it forward.

With regard to tribunals, I have held the view for many years, which I have expressed in both Houses, that I have some degree of difficulty with how the nation has dealt with tribunals of inquiry. During his time in office, will the Minister analyse the benefits and salient features - and those features not so salient - of tribunals of inquiry? I was involved in the Whiddy disaster tribunal in the early 1980s, and as I understand the original legislation three of four events have warranted tribunals of inquiry. One of the these was the Whiddy disaster which saw the loss of 50 lives and another was the Stardust disaster. However, have we coughed up too easily on tribunals for non-serious reasons? I am not taking away from any of the tribunals, but any tribunal lasting for ten or 12 years and costing the State excessive sums of money does not do justice to the notion of what tribunals are for. I know it does not affect this Bill, but perhaps in the course of the Minister's term of office he will examine the concept of the tribunal of inquiry. Do they deliver what it was intended they would deliver or are they a glorious waste of money with few or no results? The Minister may not wish to answer this today, but on another occasion he is in the House he might provide a balanced answer in this regard.

The Minister has referred to what becomes of tribunal documentation and I would like to know where all of the documents from the Mahon tribunal are stored. One would probably need a room much bigger than the Seanad Chamber to store them. Perhaps they can be stored on disk.

I thank the Minister for the Bill, which will be important. Some of the Minister's predecessors had a notion to attempt to codify the entire criminal law. I am not sure whether this is a utopian dream. Will it ever happen? Can the Minister see it being achieved? From an academic point of view it would be wonderful if sometime in this new century, perhaps in five or ten years, we had codified, omnibus criminal law legislation or an all-encompassing document that would piece everything together. Perhaps that is a dream rather than a possibility.