Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

All correspondence is covered by a confidentiality requirement. My natural disposition is to be open on the issue of correspondence. The correspondence is not completed and to break confidentiality I would show discourtesy to the tribunal. It is also more important that I complete this issue and then I will visit the issue of making all material available.

I do not disagree with the Deputy's thesis that the Minister is here to do the will of the House but the Minister also has a responsibility — as the Deputy has rightly pointed out — to keep in mind the issue of costs and finality in the tribunals. My correspondence with Mr. Justice Mahon has been respectful and cordial although I have read commentary to the effect that it is otherwise.

Mr. Justice Mahon has invited me to meet him and it would be the height of discourtesy to refuse that. We must decide how to determine what issues can be discussed. The House can be confident that I will be as forthcoming and as open with House as possible. It would, however, be misleading and discourteous to release incomplete correspondence. The Deputy correctly pointed out that this House determined the new arrangements that would apply after 2004. I will discuss the remaining issues with Judge Mahon. At the end of that process the Deputy might wish to probe further about the issue through a parliamentary question.

See this speech in context