Kathryn Reilly (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I shall keep my comments as brief as possible because previous Senators have said a lot of what I was going to say and posed my questions.

As the Minister will know from the other House, Sinn Féin supports the Bill based on the principle that the Oireachtas should have the power to conduct inquiries. Clearly, the defeat of the referendum limits the scope of the Bill and that of any subsequent inquiry but the legislation is still valuable. As has been mentioned, a lot of the discussion that took place over the past couple of weeks has been in terms of the banking inquiry. As the Minister and other Members of this House have stated, it is important to remember that the Bill is about much more than that specific inquiry in terms of the framework that it will establish. Future Oireachtas inquiries cannot make adverse findings against individuals. My colleagues and I in the Sinn Féin Party find that provision regrettable but we respect the outcome of the referendum.

I shall touch on the referendum. Given that the people have spoken on the referendum it would be regrettable if the Government chose to rerun the referendum. The people have spoken on the matter and they are not minded, at present, to extend extra powers to politicians and that is due to their distrust of politicians. If we, as politicians, wish to regain their trust then we must respect the outcome of the referendum. As I said, the result has limited the scope of the legislation and that of a future Oireachtas inquiry, probably more than we would like.

Earlier I mentioned the banking inquiry. It will not be able to make adverse findings of fact and cannot interfere with criminal proceedings against any individual. The only forum will be a court of law. I share the frustration felt by many people about the delay in establishing the banking inquiry. That is regrettable. To date, the public's knowledge of what happened or surrounded the events in 2008 has been based on leaked information to national newspapers. The Irish Independent has done us all a great service by putting the information into the public domain but that is no substitute for an open, transparent and detailed public inquiry.
As I said, many of my comments and questions have already been raised but the Sinn Féin Party supports the Bill and the establishment of the banking inquiry. We will table some minor amendments at Committee Stage that will strengthen the objectives that we both share in terms of the legislation.