Michael Woods (Dublin North East, Fianna Fail)

I thank Deputy Gilmore for being prepared to reconsider what he said. I take it he will obtain further information after this gathering.

I want to make two points that are relevant to what was said this afternoon, the first of which is that the indemnity is in the legislation. We discussed it in the House and it is on record. It was discussed time and again but the detail was ultimately a matter for the Attorney General. It was left to him and the Government and was finalised after the legislation was completed in the House.

The second point is that the Attorney General was never out of the loop. This matter has featured for a long time and it has been raised again today. The Committee of Public Accounts dealt with this whole issue forensically and actually produced an excellent report on it, in which it went into great detail. This is a good example of what the Committee of Public Accounts can do.

The talks with the negotiating team broke down between September and February. I was not on the negotiating team. My job was only in respect of a policy issue; it was to get the talks back on line and not to get into legal or other detail.

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