Mr. Brian Purcell:

I covered this earlier. The correspondence was protracted because there had been issues with Sergeant McCabe not wanting matters to be brought to the attention of the Garda Síochána. In this particular instance, the solicitor acting on behalf of Sergeant McCabe stated specifically in the correspondence that he felt the matter was so important it should not be investigated by An Garda Síochána or the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission. As I pointed out earlier and as the Deputy will be aware, GSOC is the independent statutory body charged with the remit of investigating any elements of wrongdoing by members of the Garda Síochána up to and including deaths. Therefore, it cannot be the case that something is so important that it cannot be investigated by GSOC. There was a real concern, because of concerns expressed by Sergeant McCabe, that if we were to send the material to the Garda Síochána that in itself would become an issue. It was for that reason that there was protracted correspondence. Mr. Guerin commented in his report that he did not know why no response was given. I do not know either why no response was given but no response to the question we asked was given. While I cannot be exactly certain I think on five occasions we wrote to the solicitor asking for this to happen.