Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)

We are talking about documents which the Department might have had 50, 60 or 70 years ago, although we do not know whether it did — if it did, they may have been lost as far back as the middle of the Second World War — and that might have been relevant. Any reasonable person trying to meet a request such as this would find it very difficult. Notwithstanding the difficulties involved, we are doing everything we can to make sure that if any of those documents are available or if there is any record of their being lost or destroyed, we will be able to inform the commission of this. I assure the House that no stone will be left unturned by the legal team or the officials in the Department, who have been committed and dedicated to this work. Nothing will be left to chance. If the order can be complied with it will be. If not, we will explain as best we can to the commission why we cannot produce documents about which we do not know. I hope we will not be in that position. It is funny to be accused of not producing documents while being castigated for producing too many.

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