Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

——and asked the sergeant in charge to give me the names of the suspects in crimes A, B or C which he or she was investigating, I would not be entitled to that either. It is in the interests of due process and of ensuring the objective everyone has is achieved, which is to see if there was any wrongdoing in regard to these matters and that if there was wrongdoing, those who did wrong will have to answer for it under the law without fear or favour. That is my only motivation in regard to this matter. I have no other motivation. While I will perhaps have to put up with the smear obviously going around as a result of it, I want to make it very clear that this Government holds no brief for any individual, that it expects everyone to be treated equally before the law——

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