Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As I said in my reply, potentially the most serious issue was the taping of telephone conversations in Garda stations throughout the country over a period of 30 years. When citizens would telephone Garda stations with comments or views, the calls were being recorded without their knowledge. This went on for so long that it is of the most serious import. The commission of investigation under Mr. Justice Fennelly faces an enormous challenge.

I do not accept the Deputy's assertion in respect of the forced resignation of anybody. The Garda Commissioner is a very important position in the Constitution, and there is a process if a Government has a wish to force the retirement of a Garda Commissioner. The Deputy knows that. It applied before in the case of a previous Garda Commissioner who was removed by a Government. Does the Deputy not understand that the people I was speaking to would not have allowed such a thing to happen without the set process being put in place? Surely he does not wish to undermine the integrity of such people, even if there were any intent to do what the Deputy suggests. I do not accept the Deputy's assertion at all.

I also do not accept the Deputy's assertion that there was some type of add-on, as the Deputy describes it, by the Oireachtas committee. This is a properly constituted committee of the House. It agreed unanimously to write to me and it made three requests. I complied with two of them fully but I could not comply with the third, which was to dictate to the sole member when a report might be produced. The Deputy has made comments in the past that the report, which is not yet written and was not yet written at that stage, should be published. The Deputy knows one cannot do that, because he sat around the Cabinet table when the Commission of Investigation Act was processed.

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