Farewell to Tribunals

The publication of the Mahon report in March ended the era of tribunals, writes Michael Clifford

THE year to which we now bid farewell takes with it an era that few will be sad to see the back of. Last March the publication of the final report of the planning tribunal brought the curtain down on an era of expensive, meandering public inquiries.

The planning tribunal — which came to be known as Mahon in the last 10 of its 15 years — was the mother of all tribunals. It was established in 1997 under the chair of Judge Feargus Flood on foot of an allegation of corruption against a government minister, Ray Burke.