Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

-----in the context of a potential court case. Those who hold the records have indicated they will only release them on foot of a court order. I recognise the concern the Deputy raises about whether there is a power somewhere to protect these records. There is another issue about who has access to such records. The records that were presented to the Ryan report were held highly confidential and they are not discoverable by individuals apart from individuals who have a right to their personal records under FOI and so on. I simply do not have the knowledge about whether there is power to provide a protection order of some description to records of this nature. As far as I can establish, there is no such power in my Department to essentially put a freeze on what are private records in this context. All I can say to the Deputy is that I will make further inquiries to see if there are such powers. I can understand the concern people have that such records should be protected and preserved and available where individuals have concerns. I do not know whether these are records that were submitted to the Ryan report or what their status is. This has only come to our attention very recently. They are private records as far as my Department is concerned. The Department was never given power, through the Ryan report or any of that phase, to seize, protect or collate on behalf of the State records that were in the hands of the congregations. I will have to come back to the Deputy on the issue.

See this speech in context