Roderic O'Gorman (Dublin West, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I hear where Senators are coming from. Probably our earlier debate on amendment No. 2 and the discussion about the appropriateness, or otherwise, of the confidential committee and the rules around that reveal the shortcomings - and "shortcomings" is far too light a phrase to use - of using the commission of investigation model to examine an issue of such great impact on so many people and took place over such a longer period of time.I mean no disrespect to the three commissioners who have worked incredibly hard. Nevertheless, the institutional straitjacket they were in limited their ability to shape what they were doing to the circumstances of the people they were seeking to assist by undertaking this investigation. In responding to the commission and in undertaking the work on the other major laws we have spoken about, the Department has a significant body of work to do. I would prefer, therefore, that something like this would not just be the responsibility of my Department. It is a whole-of-government issue because we have to learn from other schemes that were put in place such as the redress scheme and we must examine what has been done elsewhere. A collective Government approach is needed. I am worried by suggestions that this issue is just for my Department. As the Senator said, there may be issues we have to examine in the future. This is overly restrictive and I do not accept the amendment, though I take the point. In our response to the recommendations from the commission, in particular, if and when we need to address matters of this degree of sensitivity again, we have to learn how we will do that.