Mr. Brian Purcell:

Again, I have been through this in some detail. The letter that came in on 27 February just gave a bit more detail in regard to the issues that had been investigated by gardaí. I went into considerable detail explaining how the analysis of the issues was such that we knew the situation had been investigated by gardaí - by a chief superintendent at an early stage, at a later stage by an assistant commissioner and subsequently by a deputy commissioner. The investigations had been endorsed by the Commissioner who had written to the Minister and in turn, the Minister had written back. The ten volumes of files were sent to the DPP's office and that office took a decision not to prosecute. One of the things I mentioned earlier was a crucial point that was not covered in Mr. Guerin's report because, as he outlined in his report, he did not have the GSOC perspective on what happened, namely, that under the confidential recipient regulations of 2007, there is a requirement for any complaints-allegations that are referred by the confidential recipient to the Garda Síochána to be referred to GSOC, as well as the response to those allegations or complaints. I use the word "crucial" in this regard because that gave an assurance that not only had it been investigated by gardaí and been sent to the DPP, it had also gone to the one body that has the independent statutory remit for investigating complaints about gardaí. It was in that context that the whole thing was proceeding. As I said, that was the reasoning behind this.