David Cullinane (Waterford, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I shall make a final point on this theme before moving on my second one.

To be fair to us, the note from Mr. Barrett seems to suggest that Mr. Howard said he was around a long time as a ifelong' civil servant, knew the Commissioner and has a close relationship with her, and that he did not want to do anything nor did he believe one should do anything that could cause embarrassment or difficulty for the organisation. All of that feeds into the pattern of "let us keep this internal and outside the purview of others". I know that is not what has been said here. I am saying that it is difficult to take anything other than that from the note.