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

-----and the Department and ultimately, the Minister - under whose name it would be released - in any information they release, have clear responsibilities under the Companies Act to protect people. The Minister and the Department have an obligation to ensure that any request for the release of information is done in accordance with the powers assigned to them. That is what they have done. The Deputy is correct that under the protected disclosure, an official of my Department has raised issues about how this was handled by previous Ministers and various bodies. We have allowed a process to be introduced into our legislative procedure whereby an individual can raise such concerns, and these have been brought to the attention of the Committee of Public Accounts.