Tribunals bill - Indifferent in pursuit of incredible

IT IS difficult to disagree with Government claims that opposition suggestions that the Government is trying to intimidate the Mahon Tribunal by reactivating the Tribunals of Inquiry Bill 2005 are a mischief-making, barrage of red herrings.

The Mahon Tribunal has already outlined a timetable for its work that means it would have completed all of its inquiries well before the bill would have any impact on its proceedings.

In other words, the bill will do nothing to saveanyone’s bacon if they are subject to the tribunal’s attentions.

Neither is it likely that the move would intimidate the Mahon Tribunal, which has shown it is well able to fight its corner, even in the face of the most inappropriate and diversionary provocation.

The Taoiseach is expected to spend two days at the tribunal just before Christmas — on December 20 and 21. He spent four days there in September and his performance then led to a considerable fall in his popularity ratings.

If Mr Ahern gives a performance as contradictory and confusing next month then he will further undermine his ambition to remain in charge of Fianna Fáil until his 60th birthday in September 2011.

The objective of the bill is to modernise inquiry procedures, reform the fees structure for lawyers and prevent media leaks of confidential documents.

The Government is vulnerable to criticism on many fronts. It has presided over a series of failures in management and judgement and failed to deliver the services an affluent society is entitled to expect.

What this tiff does reveal is the feebleness of our opposition.

Time after time, when the issues cried out for a passionate and relentless attack, we saw confusion camouflaged by sham statesmanship. We are indeed watching the indifferent in pursuit of the incredible.