Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Like Senator Reilly, I was tied up with the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) (No. 2) Bill so I had to leave for a while. I kept a check on the screens and many of the questions have been answered. I acknowledge much of the great work the Office of the Director of Corporate Enforcement has done. As Mr. Drennan said, the office had four big results out of five and the one is tagging the office down. Most people perhaps thought that the head of the snake would be the most obvious result but that is the way these things go. There have been high-profile cases recently relating to insurance, print and whatever else. The office and its staff have to be commended. They have shown themselves to be no shrinking violets and I acknowledge that.

The last paragraph of the report that Mr. Drennan gave us on DPPv. FitzPatrick refers to the fact that the case came at a considerable human cost in his department. That is a poignant line and Mr. Drennan might like to expand on that.

I appreciate the lack of staffing and resources for a case of that size and I have no doubt it was a mountain to climb, to say the least. I certainly feel for Mr. Drennan and his staff and the work that was thrown at their door when they were so short of resources and I understand that Mr. Drennan would like us to get the full report. That said, the judge stressed the point about cross-contamination and coaching and, evidently, the destruction of files. That is not something that any normal arm of the State carries out and, to be fair, something has to come out of today's proceedings other than the lack of staffing and resources. A lack of staffing and resources does not lead to this. I cannot see that, even if we say that one or two staff members were rogue or whatever. As we know, some of that has come out through the media and we might hear more of that at a further case. I would appreciate a little elaboration on that point. The committee, after long and considered work on this today, would appreciate if Mr. Drennan could broaden that slightly for us.