Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I know. One can do a lot of damage in 40 seconds depending on which way one goes. I will refer to the Dáil debate of 22 June 2005 on the establishment of the ombudsman commission. A current Minister of State, Deputy Costello, made a considerable contribution to the then Minister to the effect that most of the Opposition was unhappy with the office's structure. The Minister stated:

What I have put in place, and what I stand over completely, is that for the purposes of sovereign Government and accountability to this House, if a dispute arises as to whether a file in the possession of An Garda Síochána should be made accessible to the Executive power of this State, it should only be accessible if the most senior civil servant in my Department, who is not under my direction in this regard, concurs and demands the production of that file.

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