Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In regard to the issue the Deputy raised, I have already gone through the matter. These are serious matters and when I became aware of the extent of this matter, I took it with great seriousness, as did the Taoiseach and the Attorney General. In the context of the working group, this, as I understand it, was an internal Garda working group and there was a representative of the Attorney General's office, I am advised, on it. There was no one from my Department on it. What was happening within this group was that it was seeking to ascertain the extent of the problem and how many tapes there were. I cannot give the Deputy a specific answer as to at what point it was established how many tapes there were. My understanding of what happened, which reflects exactly what the Taoiseach said earlier, was that there was a substantial number of tapes found and that there was a change in the system in 2008 which changed, in some way, the technology. I am still not clear on how many recordings exist and I cannot definitively say from which Garda stations.

This is why we want the matter inquired into. I know that the interim Commissioner is having this matter examined in great detail and I expect she will report to my Department on the matter. It is important the Attorney General's office is aware of the maximum amount of information so as to ensure that appropriate detailed terms of reference are given to the individual to be appointed to carry out the statutory inquiry.

There is no mystery about how this occurred. I have detailed how it occurred. Unfortunately, it seems to be the case that recordings of this nature were going on for some considerable time going back many years through the lifetimes of a series of Governments. I want to get full detail of this and full details of what implications it might have for our criminal justice system, our civil law system and any litigation that is taking place.

See this speech in context