Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

I am sorry if I did not make that clear. I thought I did. When it became clear some years ago, the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Donoghue, instituted a full examination and investigation in the Department while the Garda Commissioner carried out an examination of Garda files. They did not uncover the whereabouts of the files. It was not established how, why or where the files went missing, but both the Garda Commissioner and the Minister examined the matter.

If I recall correctly, examinations and investigations go back to the 1970s when these issues came to light. These questions were answered by the then Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue. However, I can bring these issues to the fore once again, as it is some years since this was done.

Deputy Rabbitte asked me a straight question on the other issue. I could avoid answering his question and say that, if one keeps going back to the British Prime Minister and to the Secretaries of State and arranging meetings with the judges, either I must believe they cannot find any more information about the facts or I do not. One should be in a position to believe them if they were asked time and again over a number of years to investigate these issues. By and large I believe that Secretaries of State had no vested interest in not co-operating. They examined the issues and came up with various matters in regard to the specific questions they were asked. Having dealt with this over so many years leads me to question whether the information of that time in 1974 would have been written down and put on a file anyway. That is the issue. I do not think Secretaries of State or the British Prime Minister would have refused to pass over information to either Mr. Justice Hamilton or Mr. Justice Barron. I do not think they would do that. I do not question their bona fides.

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