Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy also made some points about countless media reports and asked me whether I was called back to the commission of investigation. I have already given my view on this. I received correspondence from the commission in the same way as other people did and I responded to that in writing and in evidence to the commission. I am not going further than that. When the commission's final report is received by me, it will be published by me as the sponsoring Minister in accordance with the law.

The Deputy said it was not a big issue but he started off by saying that it was a big issue. He made the point that this could not have been dealt with until after the Bailey case. That decision was made clearly by Justice Fennelly and not by anybody else. He made that decision and he is in sole control of this commission of investigation.

People say they want this dealt with in this House or by an Oireachtas committee or that they want an independent investigation but when there is an independent commission of investigation, they want it to be dealt with their way. The terms of reference were debated, approved and, indeed, amended by the House. A unanimous request was made, and a letter was sent to me, by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality, which Deputy Martin called an "add-on", asking that the terms of reference be amended so that these two elements would be investigated by the commission of investigation. I agreed with that request and I also made the point that I, no more than the committee or anybody else, was not in a position to dictate to the sole member but that if it were possible for him to bring forward an interim report on these two matters at an earlier date, he should do so if he considered it appropriate and relevant. The commission's terms were amended to take into account the formal unanimous request by the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality and that was debated in the House.

I cannot indicate to the Deputy when I expect to receive the final report because Justice Fennelly said in his letter that he did not propose to send sections of the interim report to persons who were spoken to by the commission until such time as the Bailey case was disposed of. It has now been disposed of and, as I said to Deputy Martin, a spokesperson from the commission said it was proceeding with the drafting of the interim report. I assume the process in terms of commissions of investigation will be rigorously applied by the judge. As I said to Deputies, when the report is received by me, I will publish it. Just because I happen to be the sponsoring Minister of this commission of investigation does not allow for that not to happen. When Justice Fennelly submits his final report, I will publish it. I cannot answer Deputy Adams's question as to when that will be, nor can I say to him or to Deputy Martin if it will be before the next general election. The Government has a great deal of work to do to secure the recovery of the economy for our people. We have to prepare the spring economic statement and make preparations for the Estimates and a budget.

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