Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

I did not leak any document from any file. I was asked by Independent Newspapers whether I would be prepared to give it a document in the possession of the State, which is the forged application form for a passport in the name of Mr. Johnston, which was used by the perpetrators on one of the journeys as part of the Colombia three episode. I decided that I would do so for proper reasons to establish the truth. If any other journalist had asked me for that at the time, I would have given it to him or her.

The Deputies opposite seem to ignore the fact that as far back as the early summer of 2002, all these facts were in the public domain — that Mr. Connolly travelled to Colombia, used the name "Johnston" on his travels and was in possession of a passport. All these facts were in an article in a major Sunday newspaper——

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