Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Thank you Chairman. In advance, I would like to say that I have the remnant of the flu, so if my voice ebbs and wanes, I hope nobody will attribute it to anything else. I am very happy to be here. I am accompanied by two officials from my Department, Mr. Brian Purcell who is the Secretary General, and Mr. Michael Flahive, who is the assistant secretary general. They are both with me because they were both present during my meeting with the chairman of GSOC, Mr. Simon O'Brien, which took place in my Department on the Monday after the report in The Sunday Times. I followed with interest the proceedings before this committee last week, and I read the transcript of the entirety of the proceedings.
Members of the committee have been following this matter over the last week, and I am sure they are familiar with the speech I made in the Dáil last night, setting out the developments that had occurred between Tuesday of last week and Tuesday of this week, in the context of my engagement with GSOC and other matters of relevance to the controversy that has arisen. I do not wish to detain the committee by repeating what I already put on the Dáil record last night. I am very happy to take any questions that members of the committee wish to raise with me.