Ms Oonagh McPhillips:

There was a certain amount of confusion on that and I regret that the Taoiseach was not more fully informed on those occasions. If one looks at what was said, the advice and the briefing to the Taoiseach were informed by our view of the legal situation, namely, that we could not interfere in matters before the tribunal or comment on them. A wider briefing relating to facts was not given because the view was that we could not articulate the matters as they were before the tribunal.