John O'Donoghue (Kerry South, Fianna Fail)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 9 and 10 together.

As the Deputies are aware, on 1 February 2006 I appointed Mr. Tim Dalton, former Secretary General of the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, to carry out an investigation into issues relating to corporate management in Bord na gCon as well as the management of positive tests for banned substances. I received Mr. Dalton's draft report last month and my Department immediately sought guidance from the Office of the Attorney General on how to proceed with the issues raised in his report.

In accordance with the advice of the Attorney General, copies and, in some cases, extracts of the Dalton report have been sent to persons referred to in the report on a confidential basis to afford them an opportunity to submit observations on the report to me by the close of business today. Any comments received will then be made available to Mr. Dalton for the purposes of finalising his report, following which I will present proposals to my Cabinet colleagues for dealing with the recommendations made in the Dalton report. I will also seek approval for immediate publication of the report.

I regret that my requests to the various parties to refrain from comment on the subject matter of the report until due process has been completed have not been respected. I do not intend to comment at this stage on any aspect of Mr. Dalton's report until the report itself is formally in the public domain as it would be entirely inappropriate for me to do so. I will deal fully with these issues as soon as I am in a position to do so.

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