Kathleen Funchion introduces Commission of Investigation Amendment Bill
Kathleen Funchion introduced the Commission of Investigation Amendment Bill 2023, proposing that former members of commissions be required to appear before the relevant joint Oireachtas Committee within six months of a commission's final report. She framed the bill as a response to shortcomings exposed during the work on mother and baby institutions and as a measure to strengthen parliamentary scrutiny and accountability.
Purpose of the bill
The bill would amend the current Commission of Investigation legislation so that former members, upon written request, must appear before the relevant joint Oireachtas Committee within six months after the presentation of a commission's final report. The objective is to provide a formal avenue for Oireachtas scrutiny of how investigations were conducted while avoiding interference with active inquiries.
Proposed accountability mechanism
Funchion emphasised that the proposal is not intended to interfere with investigations but to ensure transparency about how questions were conducted, how investigations complied with terms of reference, and to encourage higher standards of work if greater scrutiny is expected at the end of an inquiry. The required appearance would be triggered by written requests to former commission members.
Motivation from the mother and baby inquiry
The idea for the bill arose during work on mother and baby institutions and was driven by the experience of the Commission's closure in January 2021. She recalled public disappointment with the report's publication timeline and the Children's Committee's repeated, unsuccessful requests to hear from commission members after the commission had been dissolved, leaving many unanswered questions.
Legislative context and next steps
Funchion noted that next year marks the 20th anniversary of the Commission of Investigation Act 2004, a model created to reduce time and cost compared with earlier high-cost tribunals such as the Mahan, Moriarty and Smithic tribunals. She acknowledged broader issues raised by the Law Reform Commission about public hearings versus private hearings and tribunal-style models, but said the current commission model should be made to operate with the highest levels of accountability. She thanked the Very Able Library and Research Centre and other bodies for assisting with drafting, described the measure as a first-stage bill, and urged Government support to advance it to second stage.
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Thank you very much. I am delighted to be able to introduce this bill today. It has been in the works for a long time. It is the Commission of Investigation Amendment Bill 2023, and it would aim to amend the current Commission of Investigation Bill. The idea for this bill came to me during the work on the mother and baby institutions during that time. As we know from the report and the manner in which the Commission wrapped up its work in January 2021, my main objective when drafting the bill was to ensure that former members of the Commission of Investigation, upon written requests, would be required to appear before the relevant joint Oireachtas Committee, and that they would need to appear within six months after the presentation of the Commission's final report. I really wanted to ensure that members could not simply discharge their duties without a certain level of Oireachtas scrutiny, because we all remember everything that happened in relation to the Mother and Baby Home Commission report, which was delayed for several years. When it finally came out, I know people were very anxiously awaiting it, and disappointed is an understatement, I think, when it actually was published. Then there was a whole load of series of events, and people are aware in this House how the Children's Committee, which I chair, requested on several occasions for the Commission members to come in before us. And at that point, they had been dissolved, and there was no obligation on them, but it left an awful lot of questions, I suppose, for people. As we know, when the Commission wound up, it happened, despite its repeated calls for greater accountability and for an opportunity to hear from members around the manner in which they conducted their investigation and compliance with the terms of reference. I think that it is not to interfere with investigations, because that would be totally inappropriate, but it is to see how the questions were conducted, how the investigation was conducted, and if there was, in fact, compliance with the terms of reference. And I think also that we all know, if you are conducting a piece of work, and you believe that there is going to be greater scrutiny at the end of it, I think you actually do that work in a different manner. And I think that it would have been very helpful if we had this at the time of the mother and baby investigation, but unfortunately we did not. But I do think we should look to try and amend this legislation now, so that we can do an awful lot better going forward. Obviously we would all love a situation where you would not have to have commissions of investigation, but that is unrealistic, and we know that they do have to take place. So next year actually marks the 20th anniversary of the enactment of the Commission of Investigation Act 2004, which established commissions with functions that included investigation and reporting on matters of public concern following referral from government. One of the main goals of the legislation, and this model of investigation and reporting was to reduce both time and money. Previous decades were marked by a series of costly tribunals, and mainly synonymous with those that share them, the Mahan, Moriarty and Smithic tribunals, to name a few. By 2003 it was estimated that the cost of a series of high profile inquiries during the 1990s had reached 100 million and would continue to grow. So my desire to see a level of accountability and wider discussion in public in the form of the committee setting was the driving force behind this bill. I do acknowledge there are a number of wider issues that have been highlighted, particularly by the Law Reform Commission around the benefits of conducting hearings in public as opposed to private and the Tribunal Commission model of investigation and reporting. Whilst I acknowledge the broader issues in relation to the Commission of Investigations, I do think we have that model here at the moment. Where we do have it, we should strive to ensure that it is done to the absolute highest level and with the most accountability that we can have. I do hope that we get support from the Government by this bill. We have been drafting this for the past year at least, in conjunction with the Very Able Library and Research Centre here in the Oireachtas and all the other bodies. I would like to thank them for all their efforts and their help and their support and all of the back and forth that goes on. This is only the first stage and has to move on to second stage. Sometimes there can be a delay, so I do hope we can see this move forward. I think everyone would agree that if we could have changed how the situation ended with the Mother and Baby Commission of Investigation, we would have liked to have been able to do that, and this is the opportunity to do so. Thank you very much.
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