Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Anything Mr. Justice Ryan or his commission requires will hopefully be made available to assist him because that is what we want to do. Since the establishment of the commission, 16 discovery orders have been made to the Department, 12 of which were delivered within the timeframes provided. In the case of six of those, extensions of time were granted by the commission. The difficulties encountered with the other four were subsequently resolved, so 16 cases were dealt with.

I do not have time to go through the details of the report but I understand it will be debated in the House. The problems facing the commission would not have been resolved simply by providing more resources, although we have tried our best to provide more resources. The clear message from the reviews conducted by the Attorney General and Mr. Justice Ryan is that changes are required in the procedures of the investigation committee and in the legislation.

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