Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

The Deputy is right in that my colleague, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, is in the process of establishing a working group to advise his Department on that matter. The reason is that a large number of files have been withdrawn or held in that Department. Many of them relate to personal files and other matters. A similar position does not obtain in my Department.

In regard to files relating to Northern Ireland, a total of 92 files were released to the National Archives and no files were withheld. Some 63 files were released without abstractions, or partial abstractions were made on 105 documents and 27 entire documents were abstracted. I am informed that abstractions were made in the majority of documents under section 8(4)(b) and (c) and three documents under section 8(4)(c). The abstractions related to information given in confidence, including security information and information about individuals which might be likely to defamation claims.

While it is not a matter for me, these are the kinds of issues in respect of which information would never be released. Names would be removed for those reasons. The normal files held for historical reasons in my Department are, as I understand it, always released. The only information withheld are names mentioned or the name of a person who gave information to the Taoiseach of the day or the Department of the day.

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