Matt Carthy (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

On section A, the matter I wish to raise follows on from our meeting with the officials from the Department of Justice and the Irish Prison Service this morning. The responses to my questions on the Shane O'Farrell case were very frustrating. The Secretary General of the Department of Justice indicated a number of times that she could not comment on the questions I was asking because, if I am correct, a statutory inquiry was ongoing. There is no statutory inquiry; there is a scoping inquiry that has no statutory powers whatsoever. The Secretary General indicated on a number of occasions that she would provide some written responses, but this committee should have a view on expenditure on trying to find ways to avoid delivering a public inquiry into this matter that is obviously necessary. In the follow-up correspondence, will the secretariat make that point and ask for full information? Will it also ask the Department, following on from the completion of the scoping inquiry, which we hope will be sooner rather than later, to give the timeframe it envisages if a public inquiry is initiated? What is the timeframe for the establishment of such an inquiry?