Darragh O'Brien (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Tá brón orm. I thank the Leader.

The Leader might request of the Minister for Justice and Equality an update on the District Court service, particularly in the city and county of Dublin. We have been hearing from a number of sources that the Government proposes to close District Court offices in Dublin and to centralise District Court services. I see Senator Bacik is surprised about this so it might be an opportunity for the Members opposite to do something about it in advance of the Minister making a decision. I ask the Leader to use his good offices to get confirmation from the Minister that no District Court in the Dublin metropolitan region will actually be closed and that they will not be centralised in the Phoenix Park.

At 7 p.m. this evening, the Committee of Selection will meet to select two Members of the Seanad as members of the banking inquiry. We debated the Bill in this House with the Taoiseach himself and I put it to the Taoiseach that all of us want to get to the truth of what happened. While there are aspects of the terms of reference of the inquiry that we feel fall short, what I have always hoped is that this would be a genuine effort, in a non-partisan way, by the Government to inquire into what happened around the time of the banking crisis. I understand there are three nominees from the Seanad at the meeting this evening, namely, Senator Susan O'Keeffe from the Government side, Senator Marc MacSharry, my colleague, who was finance spokesperson for four years in the Seanad, and Senator Sean Barrett. Given we are the largest Opposition group in this House, I would assume the Government will support our nominee, Senator Marc MacSharry, to serve on the banking inquiry, which would prove the point that this is not going to be a party-----