Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

It seems to me as though Deputy Martin deliberately wants to confuse the situation. His party and everybody else in the House welcomed the setting up of the commission of investigation. Its purpose was to examine all cases in which there was a write-off of over €10 million to determine whether they were done in accordance with appropriate procedures. That was and remains the objective of the commission of investigation.

Yesterday, I pointed out to the Deputy that I received a letter from the judge on Friday which pointed out to me what the Deputy just said, namely, that all of the documentation received from the special liquidator had an assertion of confidentiality over all of the documents that it submitted. He made the point that, in addition, it has asserted legal advice privilege over all of the documents containing legal advice. It is simple honesty. That is a fact, as stated to me formally in writing by the judge.

He made the point that his commission had determined that a duty of confidentiality applies to all of those documents, something I told the Deputy yesterday. Furthermore, I told him that the judge pointed out that the commission had determined that the special liquidator is entitled to claim privilege over any documentation containing such legal advice. That is the truth from the judge. He also went on to say that the Department of Finance had made a similar claim of confidentiality and privilege over some of the documentation provided by it and he pointed out that the commission, under his direction, was in the course of preparing a similar determination in respect of that. Both of those determinations were made available publicly by Mr. Justice Cregan yesterday. That is a fact and, as I said to the Deputy yesterday, I am not hiding anything. The judge went on to say that because of these determinations he was not able to proceed.

The Deputy is asking me about a commission of investigation which was established by the Oireachtas-----

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