Mr. Dónall Ó Cualáin:

In relation to the disclosures tribunal established by the Houses of the Oireachtas and under the chair of Supreme Court justice, Mr. Justice Charleton, I am very conscious of the need for I and members of my team here today not to say anything that could be seen to undermine the work of the tribunal. I am sure that the Chairman understands that.

As with all tribunals of inquiry, it is vital that An Garda Síochána ensures it provides all assistance it can to the tribunal so that the truth and facts can be established. This requires extensive and considerable resources to be devoted to the task. At all times our objective is to provide the tribunal with the information it requires as quickly as possible. So far, tens of thousands of pages of material have been provided to the tribunal. As per material provided to the committee, additional, dedicated staff with expertise and experience in this area were required to assist with this task to meet the timelines of the tribunal. This approach received written sanction from the Department of Justice and Equality and we have provided you with the costs involved. I also wrote to the committee yesterday evening.

Apart from repeating what we have already provided in correspondence I am not in a position to answer any questions on this matter.