Seanad report:Fine Gael spokesman on justice Eugene Regan asked if a statement in a Government briefing document about the Tribunals of Inquiry Bill amounted to an attempt to target The Irish Times and an attempt at some form of retaliation against it.
Mr Regan said the Bill, which was being restored to the Dáil order paper, would enable the Government to close down a tribunal when it deemed fit.
The timing of the restoration seemed rather strange, if not sinister, given that the Taoiseach had already appeared at the Mahon tribunal twice and was due to appear again.
"By all accounts his evidence at that tribunal has not been found credible, if one can judge by the recent opinion polls, where a majority of people do not believe his evidence at the tribunal, and, indeed, the remarks of the judges in the tribunal where they speak about polar opposites in evidence and contradictory evidence."
He said the Government briefing paper on the restoring of the Bill also dealt with the legal obligations in relation to disclosure of information.
"I just wonder what is the basis of this statement. Is it an attempt to target The Irish Times, and is it an attempt at some form of retaliation against The Irish Times?"
Mr Regan said he wanted to make another point to the leader of the House, Donie Cassidy (FF) and to the deputy leader Dan Boyle (GP). The deputy leader in the Dáil had indicated that there would be a radical review of the Bill before its reintroduction. But the briefing paper merely referred to some minor technical adjustments.
Eoghan Harris (Ind) said Mr Regan was repeatedly trying to rerun the general election and the Mahon tribunal. He was sneaking it in every time. The Mahon tribunal, the position of the Taoiseach and what the people felt about him had been dealt with in the election.
"But even if it weren't, asking us to have confidence in all aspects of the Mahon tribunal is a joke. Even Vincent Browne, the scourge of the Taoiseach in recent times, hasn't confidence in the Mahon tribunal. The Mahon tribunal leaked like a sieve, and asking us to give blanket confidence in it is ridiculous."
Jim Walsh (FF) called for a debate on the need for legislation to fix limits on the amounts of money that could be spent by candidates seeking election to councils.
He suggested that such a debate might be led off by Mr Regan, who had spent "more than €50,000" getting himself elected to Dún Laoghaire Corporation.
Denis O'Donovan (FF) said that inquiries which resembled soap operas should be replaced with a better mechanism.
"It's a joke. The public apathy out there is huge."
An early warning should be sent by Ireland to the European Community that if Europe wanted to play hardball or dirty tricks with us over our Corporation tax rate, we would be prepared to defeat the European treaty, said Shane Ross (Ind).
Europe was not treating us very well at present, and there were continuous moves in the EU to undermine the anchor of our success economically, and that was the 12½ per cent tax rate.