Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

First, sufficient resources are being applied by the Garda Commissioner. At no stage has there been any indication to the contrary from the Garda Commissioner that the gardaí are not in a position to do this important work. They are adept at it and are a very experienced police force in this entire area, as the Deputy can imagine. It has never been indicated to me that this has been compromised in any way from a resourcing point of view.

On the second matter raised by the Deputy, I would make the point that there is no obstacle to a visit taking place in view of the full implementation of the Good Friday Agreement and now that we have seen the full devolution of policing and justice powers to Northern Ireland. That has been an important part of the Agreement which has now been worked through. The formal process of any details or the issuing of an invitation would have to be worked through but presumably any visit that would take place would be before the end of the term of office of President McAleese in November 2011, but that is an issue for further work and consideration.

There is no specific question down on the Claudy bombing and therefore I do not have any information in my supplementary information. It has never been suggested to me that the Irish authorities were informed. That is not something that has ever been brought to my attention. It was an internal church matter and comments have been made by the churches in regard to it. The report speaks for itself in its own terms but I am not aware that there has been any Irish involvement.

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