Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

First, I said that I had asked the director of the ODCE to send me a report as soon as possible, that is, on or before 23 June.

The reason for this is that we do not have the transcript of the court case. Huge sections of it are closed off. It has been very sensitive. Even the jury was not there. I cannot investigate something when we do not know what happened in court. As I said, the director of the ODCE has gone to the courts to seek the transcript so that we will have a better sense of what is going on.

I am being asked questions left, right and centre. Everyone wants to protect the independence of the ODCE, the DPP and the courts. Yet some Deputies are then asking me to be answerable for the courts and the DPP. I am sorry; I cannot take questions that should be addressed to the DPP or to the judge. That is the way it is. I clearly stated in my opening remarks that I will get this report, go to the Attorney General and then come back to the Dáil. I will tell Deputies plain and squarely what happened. We can go from there to find solutions in order to ensure that this never happens again.

I say to Deputy Boyd Barrett that I equally know people in Dún Laoghaire who were absolutely affected. I was a school principal and there were children coming into our school who had suffered. He should not have this outrage as if we are all to blame. There were serious issues within that, irrespective of the resources. I will address resources in a moment. However, this was not down to resources. A person who shredded evidence and a person who coached witnesses - that is a totally different matter-----

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