Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

The substantive question put to the Taoiseach was what was the threat to our democracy. Will the Taoiseach answer that question? I remind him it was protection of our democracy and the institutions of the State that justified a previous Minister for Justice tapping telephones. Will the Taoiseach spell out what was the threat?

Like Deputy Kenny, I think Frank Connolly's answers to legitimate questions would not have satisfied Frank Connolly the journalist if he were asking the questions. I am not interested in either watchdogs or lap-dogs. What I want to know is whether the Taoiseach stands over the untrammelled and unreviewable use of executive power, where no prosecution has taken place or where a prosecution might be contemplated, to access Garda intelligence information in this fashion. If the Minister believes, as he has said, that he had a duty to do what he did, why did he not give expression to that duty in this House? Why, if he felt that was his duty, did he secretly and selectively leak a document from the relevant file?

We are talking here about a Minister who inserted a particular provision in the Garda Act that gives him access to such files. The same Minister is in favour of a State appointed press council. I am sure the Minister, who knows pretty much everything that is going on, knows that the next stop for the Centre for Public Inquiry was to be Thornton Hall and that the CPI had a number of meetings with the Thornton Hall people. Did he know that? Did he know that would be a conflict of interest and did he record the matter with the Taoiseach? I ask the Taoiseach for the third time to answer the question, did he believe there was a threat to our democracy and what was that threat?

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