Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

Fianna Fáil backbenchers will like what I have to say. In August 2000, the Acting Commissioner, Mr. Noel Conroy, sent a secret report based on the Carty investigation to the then Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Deputy O'Donoghue. It was a shocking 37-page summary of what Assistant Commissioner Carty had uncovered in Donegal. What did the Minister, Deputy O'Donoghue, do about it? Absolutely nothing.

In November 2001, the then Minister, on the advice of the Attorney General, voted down a motion from the Labour Party, Fine Gael and the Green Party calling for an inquiry into this affair. The current Minister, Deputy McDowell, came in last week and said if they had known the facts earlier they would have acted earlier. He then went on to accuse me of bluffing when I told him what was in the Conroy report, saying I had not read it or seen it. I have the report here now, entitled An investigation carried out by Assistant Commissioner Kevin Carty into allegations that members of An Garda Síochána attached to the Donegal division engaged in criminal and unethical behaviour in the execution of their professional duties between 1994 and 1998.

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