The Moriarty Tribunal should publish an interim report, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore said.
The tribunal, established in 1997, has so far cost €39.15 million. Mr Gilmore said yesterday that the Dáil should agree an all-party motion asking for the report, setting out when it expected the investigation to conclude and when the final report would be presented to the House.
He said the Dáil had ultimate responsibility for the tribunal because it had established it.
“When the tribunal was set up, it was a requirement that it would be conducted in as economical a manner and as quickly as possible.
“I do not think anybody at that time envisaged the tribunal going on for 13 years.’’
He said it was time for the Dáil “to knock on the door, as a judge might do for a jury which is out for a long time, and ask them if they are any closer to coming to a conclusion”.
Mr Gilmore was responding to a report in the Sunday Tribuneclaiming that the tribunal had withdrawn a number of key provisional findings involving businessman Dermot Desmond.
The report said the tribunal had communicated late on Friday afternoon that a number of key points in its preliminary findings of late 2008 – concerning Mr Desmond and relating to the ownership of the Esat Digifone consortium that won the mobile licence in the mid-1990s – had been withdrawn.
Earlier this month, Taoiseach Brian Cowen told the Dáil that he had written to tribunal chairman Mr Justice Michael Moriarty asking about the timescale for the completion of its report.
Mr Justice Moriarty had told him uncertainty surrounding a witness’s appearance meant it was not possible to be definitive about completion of his work.