Jennifer Whitmore (Wicklow, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister for coming in today. I know he is in a difficult position because he is answering questions on behalf of the commission. That is unfortunate because my preference would have been that we could have put our questions to the commission. They has declined to come in and in their absence I will put some questions to the Minister on the work that was undertaken.

The commission's report specifically states that 550 witnesses were asked for permission to record their evidence and then all such recordings were destroyed. Section 43 of the Commissions of Investigation Act 2004 says: "all evidence received by and all documents created by or for the commission" have to transfer over to the Minister. We are in a situation where there was evidence recorded. The Commission states that consent was given. There is no record of that consent and some survivors are saying that they did not give that consent. So there is no evidence of such consent being given. With the information that we know now, does the Minister believe that the commission was within its legal remit to destroy this data? Has he sought legal advice on that?