Mr. Brian Purcell:

Sometimes it is. As I was saying earlier, this ran in parallel with the whole penalty points issue. That was a very big issue that was going on in parallel to all of this so there would have been discussions internally in regard to what was happening with the various allegations made by Sergeant McCabe. It was not the case that the particular set of allegations we are now discussing were there, in isolation. There were other things going on in regard to Sergeant McCabe, particularly the penalty points issue. Sergeant McCabe and the allegations made by him were very much a live issue. However, I am not saying that the letter to which the Deputy is referring went to the Minister; I actually do not think it did go. What I am trying to do here is to set the context and explain that the particular contents of that letter referred back to the investigation that was carried out at an earlier stage which was the subject of correspondence, was examined by the DPP and was sent on to GSOC. I must make it clear that it was not sent by us to GSOC. Under a section in the confidential recipient regulations, there was a requirement for the Garda Commissioner to refer the documentation to GSOC. I am just trying to explain the circumstances.