Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)

Is the Minister, Deputy McDowell, suggesting that the Cabinet colleague, Deputy O'Donoghue, refused to give him a copy of the report at that time? This aspect of the matter is not clear. The current Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform went on to say last Friday:

Unfortunately, it was the case at the time, doubtless in good faith, that there was a doctrine that the Garda Síochána was in privity with the Director of Public Prosecutions and that it was open to senior gardaí in consultation with the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions to decide what the then Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue and myself could see in respect of the investigations being carried out in Donegal.

We need clarity on this matter. Differing versions of events have been presented in this House as the truth. I could give many more examples of a clear and undeniable presentation that the then Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, had the Carty report, or at least the essence of the Carty report, by July or early August 2000.

The Taoiseach said in the House yesterday:

A partial version of the Carty report was eventually furnished in November 2001, the same month in which Shane Murphy, Senior Counsel, was appointed to review the matter. The complete Carty report, as was stated last week, including appendices, was not furnished to the Minister or the Attorney General until the very end of January or early February 2002.

According to the Taoiseach, they did not even get a partial version of the report until November 2001.

The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform and his officials have had the overnight period to consider this matter. I do not doubt that the Minister will make a further presentation to the House. I invite him to be clear and frank in his statements on this matter. He should not obfuscate. He said in the House last Friday that he was denied access to the Carty report when he was Attorney General. He told me privately that he "screamed" for the report at that time. As a consequence of not being given access to the report, he was not in a position to advise the Government adequately in advance of a Private Members' motion on the matter. The Minister has said that he wrote to then Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, to advise him that he was not in a position to give full advice to the Government because he had been denied access to the Carty report.

It is extraordinary beyond measure that when he was Attorney General, the current Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform did not resign when he was deprived of the vital information he needed to advise the Government on a matter of great seriousness. I would have expected somebody of the calibre and status of Deputy McDowell to have refused to tolerate the failure of an agent of the State to provide him with the information he needed to carry out his proper function as Attorney General, which was to give proper and full legal advice to the Government. I would have expected him to have stated clearly that he had no recourse other than to resign if he was not furnished with all adequate information. That is not what happened, apparently.

When he was the legal adviser to the Government, Deputy McDowell allowed the Government to vote down an Opposition motion to establish a full inquiry, even though the full facts or their essence were known, as far as I understand, to the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Donoghue. It is clear that the then Minister did not communicate very effectively with the then Attorney General. The House has been told in recent days that neither the then Minister nor the then Attorney General knew anything of substance until November 2001, and that they did not have the complete picture until late January or early February 2002. It is unbelievable.

I hope the House will be given some clarity, rather than more smoke, during this debate. This entire issue has been shrouded with smoke from the start. We need clarity from the Minister and the former Minister about these matters so that the Parliament is no longer treated with the contempt that Ministers clearly have for it. The House should assert itself as a working and democratic Parliament rather than a mockery.

See this speech in context