Sir, – In response to the article, “Amendment on inquiries in balance” (Home News, October 29th), the Dáil Technical Group would like to highlight the inaccuracy of the assertion that “there was no political resistance to it [Oireachtas Inquiries Referendum]”.
The membership of the Dáil Technical Group has shown resistance to the referendum on a number of occasions both during the legislative process and in its aftermath. Indeed, during the progression of the proposal through the Dáil, the members of the Dáil Technical Group objected openly to the speed at which the proposal was sped through the legislative process; the members of the Dáil Technical Group opposed the Bill’s progression through both the second and fifth stages of the legislative process, thereby forcing votes to be taken on the Bill on September 15th and 20th (Votes number 97 and number 98).
Having been unsuccessful in preventing the progression of the proposal through the Dáil, the Independent members of the Dáil Technical Group issued a combined press release on October 19th and held a joint press conference in the Buswells Hotel on October 20th. In the course of this press conference, the Group stated its broad agreement with the spirit of the proposed amendment to empower Oireachtas to conduct inquiries, but expressed a strong concern at the rushed and ill-considered proposal which could have seriously damaged the current constitutional system of checks and balances if adopted in its current form.
As a result, it strongly urged the public to vote No in the Oireachtas Inquiries Referendum held last week. – Yours, etc,