Mr. Dónall Ó Cualáin:

I recognise that the matter was discussed at a meeting of the committee in July and that I indicated the report could be provided. I made that commitment in good faith at the time. However, as the interim report was prepared for the Minister for Justice and Equality, it is a matter for the Department to approve the release of the document. It was an error on my part and I apologise for it. During the conversation that led to the commitment there was some discussion about the criteria applied and that was where my headspace was during the conversation. I had no issue with the criteria, but when the formal request was received from the committee, it outlined the interim report, and I accept from the transcript of the proceedings that the commitment was made but, as I said, it was made in error.