Politicians who set up tribunals now complaining

TERRY PRONE’S diatribe on the tribunals (Irish Examiner, February 16) cannot and should not go unchallenged.

She lists all the usual complaints. They are too expensive; their terms of reference too wide; they are “a political creation dressed up as a quasi-legal forum”; a “consequence of the tribunal era is the destruction of the presumption of innocence”.

She quotes with approval a caller to a radio programme who said he would put Michael McDowell in power for nothing other than his criticism of tribunals. Shutting them down would, Ms Prone says, “get this entire Government a whole bunch of votes they wouldn’t otherwise get”. She never asked why tribunals have problems.