Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Taoiseach has made a point in his response that the Commissioner sent the reports to the Committee of Public Accounts. The timeline for that is the point. There was a report in 2008 and another in 2010. The internal audit committee was denied access to them for some reason. The essence of what has been suggested and said here in respect of the documentation from Mr. Barrett, is that there was an overall attempt to prevent this from getting into the public domain, or an attempt to massage or manage this internally. There is the suggestion that everybody in An Garda Síochána knew about Templemore, this elephant in the room, and all of the issues around it. To use Mr. Barrett's language, it was in plain view. It was nonetheless not getting the traction it should have gotten in terms of proper accountability and so on.

There is a part to which I have not gotten a satisfactory response. If we go back 15 months from the time the report was given to the Minister, when the head of legal services wrote to the Commissioner telling her that she was legally obliged to refer this to the Minister. Despite this, the Commissioner did not take that legal advice and did not refer it to the Minister. Has the Taoiseach or the Minister received any response from the Commissioner as to why she did not act at that time on that legal advice from the head of legal services of An Garda Síochána? Why did she take a decision not to act on this and not to bring it to the Minister's attention? There was a legal obligation, but in my view there was also a moral obligation. In terms of due process and procedure and accountability, the Minister should have been made aware of this given the comprehensive nature of the reports that were there at the time - the audits and so on.

There was no argument at this stage about the 42 accounts or the OPW lands. Clearly, if this got out, it would be very problematic for the Minister of the day. It seems extraordinary that the Minister would have been kept in the dark about all of this for what seems to have been up to 15 months. The Taoiseach has not really responded to that specific point. Why did the Commissioner not alert the Minister? Can the Minister come in to the House and explain that sequence of events and the failure of the Commissioner to tell her at the time?

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