John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

New legislation was required to enable a tribunal to hold part of its proceedings in private so as to avoid possible prejudice to criminal proceedings. I brought forward the necessary legislation to facilitate this — the Tribunals of Inquiry (Evidence) (Amendment) Act 2002.

The tribunal was established by the Oireachtas in April 2002. The terms of reference were both definite, as required by the legislation, and comprehensive. These included the making of extortion and hoax telephone calls, the investigations in regard to the death of Mr. Barron, allegations of harassment of the McBrearty family, complaints that some gardaí in Donegal may have been involved in hoax explosives and bomb-making equipment finds, the circumstances surrounding the arrest and detention of Frank McBrearty Jr., allegations relating to the Garda investigation of an arson attack on property situated on the site of the telecommunications mast at Ardara, County Donegal, allegations that two senior members of the Garda Síochána may have acted with impropriety and the effectiveness of the Garda Síochána complaints inquiry process vis-À-vis the complaints made by Frank McBrearty Sn. and his family between 1997 and 2001.

The terms of reference were specific and were carefully drafted to ensure the tribunal of inquiry was not restricted in any way in the scope of its inquiries. Furthermore, while the primary purpose of establishing the tribunal was to get at the truth, we also looked to the future and the tribunal was given wide-ranging powers to make recommendations as it saw fit.

I said, on the establishment of the tribunal, that the allegations that had given rise to the tribunal were matters of great public concern and that we needed to establish once and for all what happened in Donegal. I said I believed the tribunal, as established, would be able to effectively discharge its obligation without prejudicing various criminal proceedings which had been instituted in regard to the alleged misconduct. It is clear the tribunal has successfully achieved this objective.

In all of this it is also clear that I acted with the care required to respect the legal and constitutional rights of all parties.

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