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

I do stand over this process because it is the first time any Government has taken a series of cases about which Deputies, Senators and others have concerns and brought them together. As I stated, it was never intended to be a commission of investigation. The Deputy may give the details of a particular case in the Chamber, but what the Government decided to do and what I did as Minister was to set up a completely independent process in which the cases were looked at independently by legal counsel, examined and triaged to ascertain whether there was further action one could appropriately recommend to me as Minister that should be taken on them. That is a completely independent process. I made it absolutely clear from the outset that it was a review of all the data available. If the panel had further questions or needed information from other bodies, it could ask them or get it. A huge number of individuals provided further information and that is one reason the process took longer than I thought it would take. It was then necessary to give that information to the panel which in quite a number of cases considered further information received. Moreover, in quite a number of cases, for example, a report under section 41(2) of the Garda Síochána Act has been requested. In many cases, there has been a referral to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, under section 102(5) of the Garda Síochána Act. There has also been a general review of Garda practice and procedures under the Garda Síochána Act. A series of recommendations have been made and acted on. While I cannot discuss individual cases, some of the cases the Deputy may be discussing may have been through a range of court processes-----

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