Jimmy Deenihan (Kerry North, Fine Gael)

In a reply to a similar question on the previous occasion he was before the House, the Minister indicated that all parties involved in the investigation would be granted due process. In light of the selected leaking of documents associated with this case, have people received due process? In January, for example, a letter sent to the Minister by the chief executive of Bord na gCon was leaked to RTE and a number of television and radio programmes dealt with the document. Two weeks ago, before the persons named in the Dalton report even received a copy of it, The Sunday Tribune and Sunday Independent published lead articles featuring leaked details of the recommendations and findings of the report. Does this constitute due process? Does the Minister agree that the leaks have been highly selective in that they have been targeted at the chairman of Bord na gCon? I will withhold my judgment on the chairman until I receive a copy of the report which will also be discussed in the House. Surely it is not due process when one person, a busy businessman who gave ten years of his life to Bord na gCon and from which he took no fees, should be singled out and targeted in this manner. This is clearly unfair.

This is not the first leak from a Government which appears to run its affairs through a series of leaks. Last week, when the Fine Gael Party submitted a Private Members' Bill to the Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform, it was immediately leaked to the media by the Minister or one of his officials. Surely this is not the correct approach. I ask the Minister to respond to my questions on due process and the treatment of the chairman of Bord na gCon.

See this speech in context