Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The context has been outlined by officials. When this statement was presented to me, I took advice from the officials and it was decided that the witness statement should be issued to the Garda. It was pointed out very clearly that provisions were very particular and not, as the Deputy suggested, a case of bundling this up and sending it to the Garda. The Department can only release information in accordance with companies legislation. It was made very clear that this research would have to be undertaken as to whether the witness statement and information could comply with a release process.

As the Deputy knows, to wrongfully release information under that Act would be a criminal offence so this was something that had to be done. I think the officials have explained the position. This was an inquiry that started back in 1997. It had run over a long number of years through a number of Ministers. A number of documents were produced. Every one of those documents was furnished to the authorities with the power to prosecute or proceed depending on their context. It went to the Revenue Commissioners, the ICDE, the Moriarty tribunal and the Mahon tribunal. All of that information had already been released to bodies that had the power.
The powers under section 19 as I understand it - the officials can explain it more fully - are preliminary investigation powers. The intention always is that where a prima faciecase is found it would be forwarded to the authorities; that had all been done. However, clearly when this witness statement, which had been requested in 2006, arrived in 2012, it had to be examined by the Department and, as I said, that took longer than expected. However, there are understandable reasons for that taking longer than expected - the very detailed work that had to be put into investigating the matters going back through the history of this and the requirement to ensure it was complaint with the terms of release under the Companies Act coupled with the fact of retirement.
There are obviously extenuating circumstances here. It took longer than expected. However, I remind the Deputy that every piece of information on which the witness statement was based was released to the Revenue Commissioners, the Garda, the Moriarty tribunal, the Mahon tribunal and the ODCE. The Revenue Commissioners have already signalled that they dealt with the matter. The Garda has also signalled that it dealt with the matter and reported to the DPP as appropriate.
I understand one of the issues was to ensure that the material was furnished to the Moriarty tribunal in time and it was furnished to that tribunal. The Moriarty tribunal also had full access to the material. That is the backdrop. As the Secretary General has indicated, it would have been better if this could have been processed more quickly, but nothing fundamentally hinged on it, in that all the evidence on which it was based had already been furnished to the various authorities.