Michael Noonan (Limerick City, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Every fact about this issue has been put on the table by the Department of Finance and myself, whether by way of parliamentary questions or freedom of information requests made by Deputies. Not a single fact or piece of evidence has been brought forward by any of the people who are making third party allegations.

I see this as possibly the first step in an investigation. When KPMG liquidators have carried out the report and given it to me and after the Government has cleared it, I will send it to the relevant Dáil committees. I have already received a request from the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform and I have told it I will send the report to it expeditiously. I presume the Committee of Public Accounts will also look for a copy of the report and then it will up to whoever adjudicates on who deals with work in the House to decide which committee will deal with it.

I will not inhibit the committees in any way in continuing with an investigation. If further action is required at that time, the Government will facilitate it. The Deputy can see this, as with many other such cases in the past, as a first step, a scoping exercise by the people who have all the data at their disposal. His concerns, and those of many other people, have been about perceived or actual conflicts of interest and I have dealt with that by appointing retired High Court judge Mr. Justice larfhlaith O'Neill and he will decide whether there are perceived or actual conflicts of interest.

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