Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I would like the Minister to respond to the suggestion I made that this whole thing stinks to high heaven because the series of events simply defy credibility in terms of being characterised as blunders. Mr. O'Connell in court emphasised that many other people knew how the investigation was being conducted. According to him, the then Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation, Deputy Richard Bruton, in March 2011 received a report outlining the progress of the investigation and noting that the extent to which witnesses required the assistance of legal advisers was unusual and uncommon in the experience of the Garda. Therefore, the then Minister knew. Will the Minister, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor, confirm that the then Minister knew and explain why alarm bells did not ring? We were told the DPP in December 2010 was made aware of the manner in which the statements were taken to some extent, so the DPP knew there were problems with how statements were being taken. The Garda knew they were not taking the statements, even though this was not supposed to be the case, and that means the current Commissioner, Nóirín O'Sullivan, or the then Commissioner would have known. Are we asking them? Did the Minister's Department have any discussion with the Garda Commissioner or other gardaí about the irregularities? The lead prosecutor shredded documents, documents he said he never read, but there is no prosecution or no investigation into the shredding of the documents.

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