Victor Boyhan (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Tánaiste and former Minister for Justice and Equality. I want to start with the line "parallel process". Why are we having a parallel process when we have the Charleton tribunal? Based perhaps on the arithmetic of these Houses, there is a sense here of Members vying for political blood and for heads on a plate and this is neither fair, right, nor appropriate. It is questionable why we are allowing both Houses a parallel process when we already have a commission of investigation, namely, the Charleton tribunal. We belly-ached both here and in the Lower House for a tribunal. We got it, and we got the terms of reference, and yet now we want to interfere in the process of that tribunal. This is fundamentally wrong. I have no allegiance to any of the party political groups in this House but I find it fundamentally and grossly wrong and unfair to undermine this tribunal and allow a parallel process. As democrats and as politicians we should not do this.