Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

That last point is another correction of the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform. The Minister plainly said yesterday evening that the carriage of this case was the responsibility of the DPP. He said he knew nothing about it, that the Attorney General personally knew nothing about it and that he could not say if people in the Attorney General's office knew about it. It is about time the Government got its act together. There are only two Progressive Democrats Ministers at the Cabinet table and they are divided. How many divisions are on that side of the House?

Anybody who heard the interview this morning on The Gerry Ryan Show with the mother of this young girl can be under no doubt about the seriousness of this situation. I do not want to give legs to what the woman said but those Members who did not hear it, and the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform in particular — I ask him to get a transcript of it — cannot be under any doubt about the gravity of the situation that confronts that family. In those circumstances, for the facts to continue to be dribbled out in the fashion we are now getting them is simply not good enough.

I want to hear from the Tánaiste. On the question of the points she made, that is our submission. The man sitting beside her published the discussion paper in 1998.

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