Mr. John Murphy:

Deputy Tóibín suggested that there were 800 staff in the Department and surely someone else could have been found to be assigned to this. It is not as simple as that. There were very few people who could be assigned to this for a range of reasons, including in particular the expertise and the corporate memory plus the sensitivity of this matter. This is not a responsibility I could just give to someone else and tell them to sort it out in a few weeks. The Deputy asked whether if another file of that nature landed, we would deal with it more quickly. I hope we would, but I would not want to do it in a way that involved cutting corners in order to be seen to have done it as quickly as possible. It had to be done correctly and properly. That was very important.

It has to be borne in mind that it took a long time for the authorised officer to produce the witness statement in the first place. It was not likely to be possible therefore to review it in a couple of weeks or a month or two. That is not the nature of the task.