Trevor Sargent (Dublin North, Green Party)

The former Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Donoghue, told the House on 23 May 2001: "The investigation by Assistant Commissioner Carty was completed and presented to me and, in turn, to the DPP." The Minister implied that he had received the Carty report, not just Deputy Commissioner Conroy's synopsis of it, before passing it on. Even if it was only a synopsis, the Taoiseach knows this is damning. To hide behind it as if it were some type of innocent document that does not tell the full story is in itself a perversion of the truth. The Taoiseach has not answered why the full file of the investigation was not passed over to the Attorney General.

I would like to tease this out. The Taoiseach suggests that because the DPP is addressing a matter, somehow there is a wall of silence between Cabinet Ministers and the Attorney General. Is it not the case that the Attorney General is employed, very handsomely, to give political advice?

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