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

I thank the Leas-Cheann Comhairle for clarifying that, of course, to mislead the House is to deliberately seek to deceive the House; to misinform the House is to give information that may not be fully correct. I appreciate the opportunity to clarify matters as best I can. The House will appreciate, once again, that I do not have first-hand knowledge of any of these matters. I am replying based on briefings from other Departments and other Ministers but I will do my best to shine a light on things. I want to note as well that these are matters before a tribunal, a tribunal established by this House to investigate into these matters, not a role this House can hold.

I can confirm once again that the Department of Justice and Equality had no hand, act or part in the legal strategy pursued by the former Garda Commissioner. The Tánaiste had no hand, act or part in the legal strategy pursued by the former Garda Commissioner. The Department of Justice and Equality had no prior knowledge of it. The Tánaiste had no prior knowledge of it either and, therefore, could not influence it. The Department of Justice and Equality only found out about it after the fact - after it had already happened. The same applies to the Tánaiste: she only found out about it after the fact - after it had already happened.

Subsequent to my reply in this House last week, I received some new information in the form of an email I saw at 11.30 p.m. last night for the first time. This is an email between two officials in the Department of Justice and Equality describing a conversation with a third party, an official in the Office of the Attorney General. This email was then forwarded to the Minister for information.

The email speaks of a dispute between the legal team of the Garda Commissioner at the time and Sergeant McCabe. It concludes that neither the Attorney General nor the Minister had any function in the matter. The email has been provided to the disclosures tribunal. I do hope that in some way clarifies the matter as best as I can.

In relation to Sergeant McCabe, I want to say Sergeant McCabe is somebody who I have had dealings with. I met him when I was Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport when he made allegations relating to penalty points, allegations which few people believed to be true, but because of the evidence he provided to my Department, I believed that they may well have been true. I subsequently met him and subsequently supported him on a number of occasions, particularly at times when it was not possible to do so. He is one of the bravest people that I have ever encountered in public life and he is somebody who has been very much wronged by the State on a number of occasions because of his bravery and because of his willingness to shine a light into some dark places.

I really hope that we all accept that these are now matters for the disclosures tribunal. That tribunal should be allowed to do its work.

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