Tribunals should sit in private, Commission says

Private low-key inquiries concentrating on wrong-doing by an institution or the State rather than the individual has been recommended by the Law Reform Commission today as part of a plan to reduce tribunal costs.

The Law Reform Commission today published its consultation paper on public inquiries, including tribunals against a background of 10 public inquiries in the last year that have cost up to €60 million.

In its paper, the Commission focuses less on the costs element and more on the legislation enabling the Oireachtas to set up inquiries and the conduct of inquiries once they are set up.

The Commission notes "a very extravagant measure of constitutional justice has been granted in circumstances where it was not legally or constitutionally required".

It suggests that separate representation for victims of child abuse or those affected by errors in the BTSB was not constitutionally required since the questions put on their behalf could have been asked by counsel for the tribunal.

The Commission said the "amplitude of constitutional justice granted" may be because inquiries have sometimes been designed to go beyond discovering what happened and why, and ventured into assigning blame. Apportioning blame is best left to a criminal trial, according to the Commission.

To counterbalance an alteration in the features of a public inquiry, the Commission recommended three measures; the first being the holding of inquiries in private. A report on its findings may then be published, it suggests.

Private inquiries would prevent the immediate publication and amplification of accusations by the mass media. According to the Commission, if the inquiry finds the accusations can be substantiated, they will be referred to in a final report, along with the judgment of the inquiry.

The report of a private inquiry would emphasise the flaw or malfunction of the institution, big business or profession involved, rather than the sins of an individual wrongdoer. And each side of a disputed point could be contained in this report along side the conclusions, the Commission suggests.

On the issue of costs, the Commission proposes a draft bill to clarify the point that the State is not constitutionally required to pay the costs of all parties before a tribunal. This only became common practice after the Beef Tribunal, the Commission said.

A detailed draft Bill was drawn up by the Commission to replace the six separate unwieldy statutes. The Bill includes a requirement that the tribunal of inquiry comment on its terms of reference within four weeks of starting work.

The Commission will make final recommendations in a report later this year and has asked for submissions from interested parties by July 1st.

The Law Reform Commissions's document comes at a time when there is no end in sight to the Flood and Moriarty tribunals, and various groups are calling for more public inquiries to examine things that have gone wrong in public life.

The escalating cost of these inquiries prompted the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, to propose a template for a new and, it is hoped, less expensive form of inquiry.