McDowell announces reform of tribunal legislation

Minister for Justice Michael McDowell has announced a major reform of tribunal legislation.

The Minister had originally planned to introduce new amendments to existing law to speed up procedures and limit legal costs, which accounted for €140 million of the more than €190 million that current and completed tribunals have spent to date.

However, last night he said he planned to bring a proposal to Government "in the very near future" on a comprehensive reform of the tribunal's legislation, rather than on a further amending short Bill.

Legislation pre-dating the foundation of the State - the 1921 Tribunals of Inquiry Act - will be repealed as part of the reform.

"I do not believe that this approach will unduly delay the process of reform. To a large degree the effort will be one of consolidation of the provisions of existing enactments."

Mr McDowell was speaking at the presentation of the Law Reform Commission's report on public inquiries. The report makes more than 50 recommendations on the setting up of tribunals, their terms of reference and costs, particularly legal costs. The report develops a consultation paper the commission published in 2003. It also calls for the establishment of a central inquiries office to hold records and information on tribunals and includes a draft Bill on tribunals.

The Minister welcomed this proposal and said such an office would help inquiry staff to avoid wasting time in the planning, procedure or conduct of a tribunal.

Mr McDowell said his proposal "will utilise the framework provided by the commission's draft Bill as the basis for the proposed consolidation and will also incorporate the provisions of my department's current draft Bill revising procedures for dealing with costs and legal representation."

He added: "The recommendations in the report will be considered swiftly and fully in the context of the development of the new legislation and, where possible and appropriate, they will be taken on board."

He said there had been five amendments to the 1921 Tribunals of Inquiry Act in the past eight years. "This large number of amendments to one body of legislation over a short period of time has been demanding of departmental resources and Oireachtas time, and highlights the need for a 'root and branch' examination of the type the commission's final report now contains," he said.

He added that "we cannot be blind to the increasing concerns that have been raised in many quarters as to the length of time it is taking for some of the inquiries to conclude their investigations and to report.