Ms Justice Mary Ellen Ring:

On the slightly separate issue of protected disclosures, we now have a full complement of investigators which has clearly assisted in dealing with matters that have been pending, and new matters. The rate at which we have been contacted by gardaí from all around the country is increasing and that puts demands on personnel just visiting with people. We have an initial process in place that assesses the information given to us. Regarding what may be to the person making the disclosure a protected disclosure, we first have to establish what is the basis for saying that and then we have to look at it from a legal point of view. We have found for many people it is a very distressing experience. They have had significant long-term experiences where, for instance, something like bullying has affected their work life and personal life so, in fact, the taking of a statement has had to be done over the course of days as opposed to a one hour session, for instance. These cases are, even from an early stage, quite complex and they can be very difficult for the people making the disclosures.

We have levels of communication, having regard to the protections under the Act, with An Garda Síochána and those are working well enough. Our difficulty in any case whether it is a protected disclosure or not is knowing whether we have all of the relevant information. We may ask for A, B and C and get A, B and C in a reasonable period but it is only when examining A, B and C that we discover D, E and F are relevant so we have to go back and make an application for those pieces of information. We can get what we ask for but we do not always get what is relevant. At the end of the day we have to accept that we have gotten everything. I think I set out in my submission an example of a historical matter going back to the early 1980s where on initial application we were told, perhaps not surprisingly, that they could not find documentation. We went to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions and, perhaps not surprisingly, they could find the documentation. Then at a late stage we were told by the person involved that they had, in recent times, made an application under data access and got documentation and we discovered that, indeed, in the data access office was information whereas the official request came back with the answer that there was no documentation. I am not suggesting there was malfeasance on anyone's part but it was clear that a line of inquiry was followed, it revealed nothing so the answer back to us was that there was no documentation yet sitting in An Garda Síochána were indeed documents. We do not know sometimes when we are told we have everything or there is nothing more whether in fact we have everything or there is nothing more, and there is no sanction in that regard. It is an ongoing issue and it may be that something like this will always exist. Short of going in ourselves and going through every press and every file, we may not get everything. One would hope that if better file keeping, computerisation and better protection of documentation occurs within An Garda Síochána we will then get everything.

In terms of contact with An Garda Síochána on investigations, we have picked up a newspaper and read of a matter or heard about it on "Morning Ireland", having been, like members of the public, unaware of it.