Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The first thing that should be recognised is that we as a Government are committed absolutely to establishing the facts around these matters and this very sorry affair. That is why we established a commission of investigation in the first place and a tribunal thereafter. I assure the Deputy that those of us here on the Government benches want to know, as much as anyone in the House, the full facts as to what happened here, why Maurice McCabe was treated as he was and whether there was a campaign of vilification led against him by senior gardaí or anyone else.

To answer the Deputy's question, I spoke to the Tánaiste yesterday. She is currently in the United Arab Emirates on a trade mission. She confirmed to me that she had no hand, act or part in forming the former Commissioner's legal strategy, nor did she have any prior knowledge of the legal strategy the former Commissioner's team pursued. She found out about it after the fact, but around the time it was in the public domain when everyone else knew about it as well. The current Minister for Justice and Equality was not a Minister in the Department at the time and he also had no hand, act or part in, or prior knowledge of, the legal strategy being pursued by the former Commissioner's legal team.

The Department of Justice and Equality is a big place with many different people in it but, as things stand, the Department has not been able to find any record of being informed before the fact of the legal strategy the Commissioner was going to pursue. It was told about the approach taken by the Commissioner's senior counsel but that was after the cross-examination had taken place. The Department was not in a position, after the fact, to express concerns about it or counsel against it. The Deputy claims there was a call to the Secretary General on the day of the cross-examination but we have not been able to confirm if that is or is not the case. I think that perhaps it is not and that the assertion may be false but I do not want to swear to it today or until I can find out for certain. There may well have been a telephone call from the Commissioner's office to the Department on the day but it is not unusual for the Commissioner's office to contact the Department of Justice and Equality.

The former Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, had no hand, act or part in the legal strategy and had no prior knowledge of it. She and the Department only found out about it after the cross-examination had already taken place.

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