Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

In quite a number of cases more information has come into the Department through the review mechanism which has had to go to counsel for further analysis. In any circumstance where under the review mechanism extra written information is needed, for example, from GSOC or An Garda Siochána, it has been possible to get that information. It is an analysis of all of the data available. I do not agree with the Deputy's description of the ease with which it could be decided that certain cases were part of the process, while others were not. In fact, it has been quite time consuming. It is clear that the original six to eight week timeframe was a miscalculation in terms of the number of cases involved. The process is very detailed and robust. This is the first time any Government has taken these complaints - more than 300 - and set up an independent process with senior and junior counsel who are completely independent in reviewing the material and have come back to the Department and in various cases recommended further action. When I said "a couple of months", I obviously meant by the summer. I do not expect it to go on any further. I am at the point where I have made the decision that we will bring in the judicial figure and the notifications will start once that person is in place. I expect things to move ahead quickly from that point onwards. I started to receive the recommendations in the past few weeks. That is when I started to examine the individual cases and I decided that in order to continue the independence in the process, this was the way forward.

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