Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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By way of clarification, the request did not come from Mr. McCabe lawyer's; it came through them. That is quite clear from the letter. The committee's decision will be only interpreted as a political decision if we as members of the committee choose to interpret it that way and ignore all the advice we have heard to date on the reason a transcript cannot be produced. There is nothing in the transcript that is going to change the world or blow our minds. We all know that. At the same time, in producing the transcript we risk damaging Sergeant McCabe. He may not even be aware of that. We have to protect whistleblowers. That is our function as public representatives engaged in this process. We do not protect that individual or future individuals if we produce a transcript.

A decision has been made. That was the will of the committee last week. I do not think anything has changed. It is time to move on to the other issues on our agenda that need to be dealt with, of which there are many.