Jim D'Arcy (Fine Gael)

I thank the Minister of State for coming to the House. There used to be an old joke at college as to what was the cost of planning permission? One lecturer wrote the answer "10%" on the blackboard and he left it at that. To a certain extent that was true. We have moved on, thankfully, from the first tribunal report when the only person threatened with jail was the Senator who sits beside me for votes, namely, Senator Susan O'Keeffe, because she would not reveal her sources. That is a good thing. What strikes me in the Mahon report is the household names who have debased and diminished all involved in politics. Some had been defended to the hilt for a long time. Others who sought to question what was going on were accused of taking their character. The report is welcome.

I take Senator Thomas Byrne's point that he and his young colleagues are trying to come to terms with its impact on their party and are working for a new future for politics, as I hope are all. I hope some will get their just desserts.

I hope to bring forward proposals to reduce the costs. I refer Members to the secretary of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse who, having forensically examined the costs, reduced them significantly.