Pádraig Mac Lochlainn (Donegal North East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Government's first position was that we did not need an independent inquiry because the Joint Committee on Public Service Oversight and Petitions was dealing with it but it cannot make findings of adverse fact, so it was never going to be satisfactory in terms of a resolution to this issue.

The Minister's second position is to go with the half-baked review under Mr. Justice John Cooke.

Let us be very clear about the issues. The Minister talks about a political football. This issue has been in the political domain for three weeks and citizens would like it out of that domain. The best way to take this issue out of the political domain is to have a genuinely independent inquiry under the Commissions of Investigation Act which, I repeat, has the power to compel witnesses and all the documentation from the Garda Síochána, the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, the Department of Justice and Equality, Rits, Verrimus, the journalist John Mooney and whoever else, and finally make findings of fact. Why has the Minister not deployed that legislation and taken this issue out of the political arena by giving it to persons with the necessary expertise to deal with it properly?

See this speech in context