Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)

I half-heartedly welcome the statements today. I would have much preferred a proper debate. This is the first opportunity we have had in the House to examine the findings of the Morris tribunal. An interim report was issued which was not discussed in the House at all. The proper way to deal with this issue would be by way of debate rather than statements. In this manner we could have a motion to endorse the report and its referral to the appropriate forum for further consideration. The Minister has allowed for a debate in a vacuum. I have reservations about this.

Having listened to the Minister's unscripted account of his stewardship, I noted it was an extraordinarily weak defence of his time as Attorney General in the crucial period in question. It is unbelievable that he was unable to get a copy of the Carty report for two years and that he took no steps to ensure he got it. How can a Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform operate if a report into an investigation that takes place is considered to be a privy report? The Minister is expected to advise the Attorney General on matters that have been brought to his attention in abundant fashion, both verbally and in written submissions from very responsible and respectable sources. It is absolutely unbelievable that the Minister allowed circumstances to continue to obtain as outlined without taking any remedial action.

The Minister's statement that he did not want to have an inquiry because criminal prosecutions were taking place is questionable. There have been criminal prosecutions regarding this matter for the past eight years and there are still criminal prosecutions pending. Moreover, the tribunal has been making its investigations. Therefore, the Minister's excuse is invalid. I will leave it to my colleague, Deputy Howlin, to go into further detail on this matter.

In February 2002, a month before the tribunal was established, I elicited from the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform that the entry on the Richie Barron killing on the PULSE computer system was changed such that it no longer referred to suspected murder but to a hit and run. This knowledge was available to the Garda, including the Garda Commissioner and, I presume, the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform prior to the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform speaking in this House in March 2002 as if the investigation were still a murder investigation. Either he knew about the change on the PULSE system or he did not. This also applies to the Garda Commissioner. The lame-duck response of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to the effect that this would not have mattered in respect of the proceedings that took place in March 2002 to establish the tribunal and its terms of reference is poppycock. It was a very significant matter. Does anybody know what is being entered on and removed from the PULSE system? These are serious questions that must be answered.

I express my condolences to the family of Richie Barron, who is very often forgotten in all these matters, and acknowledge their grief on his untimely demise and the trauma associated with the botched "murder" investigation culminating in the exhumation of his remains and the determination that no murder had occurred at all.

I salute the McBreartys, the McConnells, the Peoples', the Gallaghers, the Brollys, the Quinns, the Crossans and all the families involved on their battle and campaign for eight years to clear their good names and vindicate themselves against the odds and against the agents of the State, who should, in a democratic society, have been protecting them but who were in fact engaged in a criminal conspiracy against them.

I congratulate Mr. Justice Frederick Morris, chairman of the tribunal set up in March 2002 to investigate certain Garda activities in Donegal, on producing two comprehensive reports in the space of two years in which strong, clear, robust findings and recommendations were made.

I criticise in the strongest possible manner the failure and neglect of two coalition Governments since 1997 to act on foot of abundant information and evidence that was made freely available to them over the years from respectable and responsible sources. Such dereliction of duty for four and a half years between 1997 and 2002, made the establishment of the Morris tribunal inevitable, when action by the current Minister, Deputy McDowell, then Attorney General and the then Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, would have made the inquiry unnecessary.

I criticise further in the strongest possible terms the total failure of the Garda complaints body to investigate and act on the information and evidence of Garda wrongdoing and criminality that was brought to its attention in the same period. Finally, I criticise Deputy McDowell as Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, for arrogantly refusing to make any concession to the McBrearty or McConnell families as regards representation, cruelly asserting again and again that the victims of a criminal conspiracy by agents of the State must await the outcome of the findings of the modules before any payments could be made. At the same time there was the nonsense of the Minister having his own legal team representing him at the tribunal — a team that does not attend or contribute. His legal team is on a retainer of substantial brief and daily fees for reading the transcripts at home or in the Dáil Library. This farce has been going on for two years while the victims of the miscarriage of justice are being lectured to continuously on the reasons why they cannot have legal representation.

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