Shane Ross (Dublin South, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I take the clerk's point about a precedent, but I would regard it as a welcome break with a fundamental flaw in the procedures if we were to make a fundamental change. A fundamental change is needed if a person who gives evidence to the committee cannot ask for his or her own transcript. There is something wrong with the procedures. We should make that break and show an example to the other committees by doing that. I do not deny the advice, but I do not accept it because I am not sure if it is right or wrong.

If we need to, let us do it. That is why we are here. Let us release it. This is an extraordinary situation, in that we are claiming to protect the whistleblower's rights by not giving him his own transcript. His lawyers can advise him on that. This letter came from his lawyers. He does not need a redacted copy. He can get it and keep it private. He is not going to libel himself. He is not going to release it if it is defamatory or injurious of himself. He will get it and give it to his lawyers, who can then advise him on it.

It seems to me that, in the present circumstances, if we do not release it, this will be interpreted as a very political decision. It will be seen in the light of an independent body appearing before another committee yesterday, that is, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC. It will be seen that anybody who challenges the might of the Garda and the Government is silenced. That is not the sort of message the Committee of Public Accounts should be sending out.

We should be sending out a message of transparency in terms of individuals appearing before this committee to challenge the State and its offices being given a fair and equal hearing. We are not doing this. For that reason, I believe we should release the transcript to Sergeant McCabe today.