Mr. Simon O'Brien:

Reflecting on my decision-making just before Christmas and the fact that a secret report is now out in the public domain, which has caused a great deal of anguish for the Irish people, not least for members of An Garda Síochána, I took that decision to apologise. I do not believe that it is wrong for me to express regret on that. I would suggest that it actually enhances independence in the sense of displaying a degree of humanity. I realised that perhaps I had not thought this through properly and had made a mistake and my apology was predicated on trying to find a way past this. The Senator thinks that has fettered our independence but I do not believe so. We have been given and enjoy a significant amount of independence to get on with the very important work we do. We hope to continue to do that work into the future.