Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Murphy. The Deputy was one of the principal public representatives who raised this issue and welcomed the debate and the establishment of a commission of investigation. The Government was happy in the circumstances to provide that. She made the point in her observations that she was pleased that we were going to get that information, albeit in a different way. I am quite sure everybody supports a facility for absolute transparency, accountability and so on in the public interest. The Minister for Finance, Deputy Michael Noonan, is, of course, co-operating fully with the commission of investigation and has said publicly that all of the available documentation was sent in unredacted fashion to the commission of inquiry.

I cannot communicate with Mr. Justice Cregan to tell him when to send in his interim report. My understanding is that could be finalised very soon. I do not want to put a day on it, but I would hope that in a relatively short time we could have the interim report. If I were to say next week, I would hope that could be so, in order that we could have his authorisation to publish the report and have it reflected on here in the Oireachtas to receive the wisdom of all Deputies about how to proceed. Nobody - with one exception, I think - referred to the word "confidentiality" during the discussions that took place on the terms of reference for this inquiry and nobody pointed out what all Deputies now know to a great extent and are very knowledgeable about. This is the first time a judge has taken this particular view in respect of the Commission of Investigation Act 2004.

The Deputy asked when I found out about this. I have already put that on the record here. I received a letter from Mr. Justice Cregan on Friday, 6 November 2015. The judge did make contact with officials from the Department of the Taoiseach, as the receiving Department, and with officials from the Office of the Attorney General, and I asked that that be presented in writing. He sent me that letter on 6 November, last Friday. In that letter he pointed to the fact that a body of work had been done by the commission of investigation in respect of the special liquidators, that he had received their assertion of confidentiality over all the documents they had submitted, that a similar claim of confidentiality and privilege was made by the Department of Finance over some of the documentation received from it, and that the commission was proposing to have a similar determination drafted as it did for the special liquidator.

See this speech in context