Moriarty tribunal report may be published in January - Cowen

The MORIARTY tribunal report is now expected to be ready for publication in early January, Taoiseach Brian Cowen has told the Dáil. “The tribunal is drawing to an end at this point,” he said.

The tribunal, established in 1997 to investigate payments to politicians, has cost €37.72 million to the end of October.

When Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report estimated the costs would be in the region of €100 million, Mr Cowen said the report referred to “potential liability” of that amount. “This includes costs incurred by other State bodies in responding to tribunal inquiries as well as third party costs.”

Labour leader Eamon Gilmore had said “there must be some estimate of the eventual cost of the tribunal”.

The Taoiseach replied: “Obviously I cannot say what the final figure will be. However, taking account of what the sole member has said and given the tribunal is coming to an end, whether the final figures will be €38 million or €39 million remains to be seen.”

During Taoiseach’s questions Mr Cowen said “a part-heard witness requires to be recalled and there is a possibility of a limited amount of further testimony, none of long duration. As regards the timescale for completion of the tribunal’s report, barring matters outside the tribunal’s control, it is the sole member’s [chairman’s] intention that the report will be ready for publication in early January.”

But Mr Gilmore said “we know from reports of all these inquiries, tribunals and so on that once the report is imminent, there is often an attempt to have the report delayed, not published or to have matters excised from it, as we saw in the case of some of the inquiries into abuse. Has there been any indication to Government from any source of an attempt to prevent the publication of the Moriarty report?”

The Taoiseach was “not aware of any such attempt. Obviously, I understand that in preparation of the report, aspects of it that will affect parties will be brought to their attention and they will have an opportunity to respond.”

Sinn Féin Dáil leader Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin said it was “an obscenity” that at least two senior counsel had earned more than €8.5 million each from the tribunal.

The Taoiseach said that “quite apart from the merit of having tribunals or using them as a mechanism, we have learned from our experience that the House needs to take things slowly before deciding to deal with an issue of urgent public importance in this way in the future”.

Seán Barrett (FG, Dún Laoghaire) criticised the delay in reporting, and said there should be a report after each module was completed. There were people “including myself as a former member of Dublin County Council who have had to wait 12 or 13 years to have their good names cleared simply because they were asked to give evidence. It is grossly unfair to any individual that he should have to wait long periods to clear his good name.”

Mr Cowen said it was a matter for the chairman to decide how such matters would proceed.