Dinny McGinley (Donegal South West, Fine Gael)

Does the Minister agree that the manner in which the Government has dealt with this matter goes to the heart of the relevance of the Ombudsman? The way the Government has treated this report questions the integrity and competence of the Ombudsman. The ombudsman in the UK suggested that if a government treats a report like that it must be because the ombudsman has gone bonkers. With due respect to the Ombudsman, that has certainly not happened. That the report is treated in this way is almost unprecedented. Does the Minister of State agree the way this report was obstructed at every level by the Government is the greatest example of stonewalling since Stonewall Jackson? Are we to take it that the report will be assigned to the dustbin and we will hear no more about it? Will the Minister of State not do the decent thing and implement the recommendations proposed by the Ombudsman in the report for the benefit of the Byrne family, who have suffered so much? I ask the Government to implement the report or at least allow it to go to the committee so that we can examine it line by line and find out if there was a cover-up and whether the Government is trying to cover someone's tracks.

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