Tribunals and corruption

The Mahon Tribunal is the longest running, most expensive legal process in the history of the state.
It was established back in 1997, dealt with bribes and payments in relation to planning issues

The Moriarty Tribunal, established in 1997, investigated payments by Ben Dunne to, among others, CJ Haughy - who is dead, and Michael Lowry , ex FG TD - still in office and now supporting an FF Government.

By the time this is done, no-one involved at a senior level will still be in office. Final reports keep being delayed, and their is no end in sight with little or no accountability.

People like Ray Burke, the man who gave away our most lucrative natural resource, Bertie Ahearn and several politicians from the two main parties have been implicated.

However, it is my opinion that unless reports are published soon, and prosecutions are bought, the Tribunal has outlived its usefulness and is simply an overpriced quango.

I do think it was an astute political move to establish the Tribunals as they drag out and run into each other.
It leads to a wave of informatio that overwhelms the public, and is confusing with different references to different tribunals in the media.

What we really need is an anti-corruption office, dealing with these issues as they arise.
Tribunals should be given strict time frames when they are established.

What bothers me most is that we should simply apply existing anti-corruption legislation.
We have an established legal system, the Tribunals are being used to circumvent this, action is not taken as it is said this will affect the outcome of a Tribunal.

Why do we have a court system then?

The greatest detererent to corruption is to ensure that anyone in public office found guilty of corruption, or recieving illegal payments, or using their office to enrich themselves, should be disbarred from public office and lose pension rights earned while in public service.


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