Thomas Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to be associated with the expressions of sympathy and tributes to former Senator and Deputy, Nicky McFadden. She was a lovely person with whom I had many interactions over the years. We both served in opposition in our time here.

I also wish to be associated with the tributes to the former Senator Edward Haughey. When I was a member of the Fianna Fáil cumann in Trinity College, his daughter was a contemporary of mine. I met him on a number of occasions and he was indeed a great asset to the Border region, including south Down and south Armagh.

The Seanad should carefully consider the commission of investigation that is being proposed by the Government. It is up to us to decide whether or not this will go ahead. It is one of those powers that I keep talking about. Under the legislation, we have equal power with the Dáil to approve the draft order that the Government will have to put forward. If we do not approve it, it will not go ahead. I appeal to colleagues to listen to the commentary that is going on today. There appear to be political reasons for launching this commission of investigation all of a sudden and I think that is very wrong. There is an onerous moral responsibility on the Seanad to examine this matter very carefully. The Government cannot do it without us. This is one of the first commissions of inquiry or tribunals, since the Beef tribunal, that is directly related to the conduct of a Government Department at this time. That makes it a very serious issue. The Mahon tribunal was mainly concerned with local authorities, while the Morris tribunal dealt with the Garda Síochána in a previous era, but this one goes right up to today.

The difficulty is that under the Commissions of Investigation Act, a specified Minister must be appointed who will deal with all the administration of the tribunal, consult with the people concerned, basically run the tribunal and be the person to whom the chairman of the commission of investigation reports. Normally that would be the line Minister, so I am asking the Leader if Deputy Shatter is going to be appointed as the specified Minister by the Government.