John Gilroy (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I rise today to support the concern expressed by my colleagues, Senators Higgins and Paul Coghlan, at the proposed establishment of an Oireachtas inquiry into the recent revelations. This is a matter not only of social justice but of public confidence. Not too many in this country can have much confidence in a system of Oireachtas inquiries or tribunals which finds a Member of the other House to be profoundly corrupt and yet allows him to swan around this building with impunity or which, in the form of the beef tribunal, threatened my party colleague, Deputy O'Keeffe, the only person who was threatened with jail time by a tribunal for breaking the story. There is no possibility that anyone would have any confidence in any sort of an inquiry led by politicians. As Senator Higgins stated, this is clearly an issue for the Garda authorities and I support her call in that regard. No doubt we will discuss that later on at the Labour Parliamentary Party meeting. I hope we will get some support for that. There seems to be some traction in this Chamber for it. The Seanad has been criticised often enough. Indeed, we have been criticised by the Taoiseach for not preventing the calamity that befell us. Here is one opportunity for the Seanad to show what it can do and what it is worth. If we are not shown to lead on this, we should not be retained at all and a good case will have been made for our abolition.