Gerry Adams (Louth, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Sinn Féin argued for an independent Garda authority, for which the previous Government, of which the Tánaiste was a member, ridiculed us. We argued for it to be established along the lines of the Patten Commission. It was only when the series of scandals erupted that she eventually and reluctantly opted for the model she now has. I wish the commission well but I return to my original questions. How do we sort this out? How does a member of the Opposition get this Government to answer an entirely valid question? I did not ask the Tánaiste to deal with the transcripts. I did not ask her to deal with the detail of this. I simply asked her, as the line Minister, that she ask the Garda Commissioner to tell her what instructions she gave to her legal team about Sergeant McCabe and whether two officers had claimed that he admitted to them that he acted with malice. That is very straightforward. There is no legal barrier whatsoever to the Commissioner answering these questions.

This Government - at least the last Government - made this mistake many times, namely, a marked refusal to treat the Dáil with the respect that it deserves, and on numerous occasions information was withheld. We have to tune into RTE and read the newspapers to find out what is happening, and the issues we are dealing with here-----

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