Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

At the end of June we asked the Attorney General to prepare his preliminary advice. He has also got advice on this because it is international law concerning the European Court of Justice, on how we can put together a case, who will join the proceedings, the limits and risks involved. That work has been done and we are due to get that report. We do not make available the Attorney General's advice in cases like that and we will not in this case either.

I have outlined the position on the Seamus Ludlow report. The report was received in October 2004 and circulated to the relevant sections for their views at that stage. They were received back at Christmas. Meetings with officials took place in spring and it was decided that security advice was required, which was received in early summer. That security and legal advice was reviewed during the summer and a final proposed approach was drafted for consideration by the relevant Ministers. I outlined to Deputy Rabbitte the main issues in that regard. The report has been completed and is prepared for presentation.

On the MacEntee report, it is hoped that is coming to a conclusion, although I do not have a final date. I should say the work on the Buchanan and Breen report is ongoing also. That inquiry is being chaired by Judge Peter Smithwick. We have gone back to the British, as I outlined earlier, on certain aspects. I do not know whether we will get anything on that but we have gone ahead on our European case. We will see what can happen on that but we are very near the end of our workload on this in so far as we can go. Mr. Justice Barron's work will be completed by the end of the year. I am not certain about Mr. MacEntee's report. The Cory report is under way. It appears to me the British Government does not want to go into a Weston Park type tribunal. If we cannot get the information from them we have to consider an alternative route. That would bring the work to finality in terms of how far we can go.

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