People were entitled to know what provoked Mr Justice Flood's "walk off the set" of the Flood tribunal after so many years of dedication and hard work, the Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said yesterday.
It was "simply unthinkable", he told the Irish Congress of Trade Unions conference in Tralee, that the taxpayer might be made liable to pay the costs of wealthy parties deemed to have obstructed and delayed the tribunal's work.
"Yet we still don't know how this situation was allowed, or caused, to come about or how the taxpayer has come to be exposed to that risk. If chairman Flood was ready last St Patrick's Day, as the Taoiseach claims, to decide the costs issue, we are entitled to know what happened since. "
Mr Rabbitte added, however, that the huge cost of several ongoing tribunals could not be ignored. "Is it possible to get costs under control while ensuring that allegations of serious wrongdoing are fully investigated? Last week's developments confirm that the Government has been preparing to confront that question," he said.
"Not surprisingly, many suspect that the Government will seek to reconfigure the Flood tribunal to its own political advantage," he claimed.
A cheaper, more efficient, economical and speedier method of inquiring into matters that could not be "swept under the carpet" was needed, he said. The DIRT inquiry in which he had served finished its public hearings in six weeks and recouped almost €500 million for the Exchequer.