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

I must state again to the Deputy that this was neither a commission of investigation nor a tribunal. It was a genuine attempt to look with a wide lens because all of the approximately 350 cases referred to the Department were taken into account.

I think the Deputy accepts they covered a very wide range of issues, including property disputes, probate issues, disputes between neighbours, dissatisfaction with the outcome of civil and criminal court actions, decisions of the DPP and outcomes of investigations by GSOC.

In the cases the Deputy is describing, he is talking about a particular cohort. All of the cases were looked at previously in detail. If there was evidence or a route forward in terms of further action that could be taken, it would be recommended to me by this panel. There were no limits in what it could recommend. It could and would have done that. The Deputy has said that some of the people who received the letters were dissatisfied. I understand what he is saying, but many of these cases go back to before 1969. Quite a large number of them are before 2000. There is a sort of historical dissatisfaction with particular cases. I completely understand how people who have lost a loved one in tragic circumstances continually try to get to the bottom of that, the reason it happened and who was involved.

In many of these cases they have been through the courts. That process has been carried out. If the people reviewing this wanted me to have a commission of inquiry, a further inquiry or a statutory inquiry, they could have recommended this. If they do in any of these cases, I will, of course, act on it because I have accepted every single recommendation. There has been no interference and in fact I have gone further than that. I have asked a judge to oversee the letters going out so that there is no dilution of the recommendation by me or my Department. Of course, there would be no intention to do that, but I introduced that separate safeguard when it was raised here in the House.

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