Bertie Ahern (Dublin Central, Fianna Fail)

Will the Deputy listen? The one thing people do not want to do is listen, they just want to raise issues. The Minister will outline the issues shortly.

There were serious issues. The view that the Minister was the first person to put this matter in the public domain a few weeks ago is nonsense. These matters happened long before 28 July when the IRA, thankfully — it was one of the great events of this year — decided to cease paramilitary activity. In a prominent national paper in mid-July 2002 it was alleged that an individual travelled to Bogotá in the spring of 2001 using such a passport. Therefore, it was not the Minister who put this in the public domain in the first place.

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