Mr. Simon O'Brien:

Again we want clarity. This is our time to give as much of that clarity as we can. Four to five people would have been involved in the original security scan. That was increased when we opened the investigation up. Again, we are talking of a cohort of probably only ten people that were included in the investigation as it moved forward. They are clearly identified within my decision log. We met in quite difficult circumstances.

The Deputy is right; we are not confining our suspect group to those individuals who were included. As we speak now we are making inquiries of our own technology to see if there is any way that copies of the report could have been printed. It was on a separate stand-alone secure system that this report was being held. All of those issues are being closed down so that we can now take some time to look carefully at who or who might not have accessed, seen, printed or taken this particular issue.

I must say again for clarity that I am at a disadvantage as to what is in the public domain. What I can say is that what I read on the Sunday morning in my bed was, without doubt, a piece of journalism that had an awful lot of provenance. Such was the level of detail that is indicated to me that it could be a particular report that I received just before Christmas. Lots more investigative steps on that are being taken. This came to us only on Sunday. I have to say that we have spent some time with skids under the back of our heels trying to catch up in relation to this particular ongoing inquiry. Now I have had a foot-on-the-ball moment - probably just last night - and really started to get to grips with what we need to do next.

I was glad to have met the Garda Commissioner. Now is the time to start investigating how we have got to where we are. Now is the time, Senators and Deputies, to call me and others to account about why we have got to where are. I am quite happy now to be in front of the committee within just three days of this happening so that I can give members clarity in a controlled environment and in a controlled way. That is not where we have been in the last 48 or 36 hours. We have really just been trying to find out who said what to whom and what has been happening. Let us get ourselves back on track. As I say, there is a bit of grip around things now and some thoughts on how we go forward. I am happy to take this organisation forward unless someone, or other people or a number of people say that is not right.