[1][2] A commission of investigation is a less expensive but less powerful alternative to a tribunal of inquiry.
[1][3] Commissions of investigation may take evidence in private, whereas tribunals of inquiry are held in public.
In 2017, the Fine Gael-led government planned to have Peter Charleton chair a commission into the Garda whistleblower scandal;[4][5] opposition demands led it to change this to a tribunal.
[6] The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse had been established in 2000 by a specific Act of the Oireachtas,[7] with further acts passed subsequently to amend its operation.
[8] The Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 was intended to provide a template so that further commissions could be established more simply, by statutory instrument after a resolution by the houses of the Oireachtas.