Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise the same issue with the Taoiseach. The answers that he has given the House today are again unsatisfactory. We know that he misled the Dáil, intentionally or not, last week because the Department of Justice and Equality has now clarified that it has miraculously found an email that has been missing for the past two years. We now know that the Tánaiste became aware of this a full year earlier than the Taoiseach claimed in the Chamber last week. I welcome the fact that he has corrected the record of the House and acknowledged this, but that does not deal with the entire issue. We have contradictory information, which raises more questions, particularly given the Tánaiste's interview on RTÉ.

She now tells us that she was aware in May 2015 that legal counsel for the Garda Commissioner was making allegations of a serious criminal nature against Sergeant McCabe and was also claiming that this complaint had not been investigated. We hear that Sergeant McCabe is disputing at the commission that that ever happened. We need to square that circle.

The Tánaiste told us she cannot even remember being told this and receiving the email in 2015. Let us cast our minds back to the significance of this controversy. We all know it has caused great hardship to Sergeant McCabe and his immediate and wider family. It has also led to the resignation of the Minister for Justice and Equality, the confidential recipient and the Garda Commissioner. Is it really credible to tell us that the Minister for Justice and Equality at the time got an email which said that the legal counsel for the Garda Commissioner was questioning a senior garda whose involvement and bravery, as the Taoiseach said, resulted in the resignation of those three individuals, that informed the Minister that serious criminal complaints were being made against the said garda, and that said that accusations were being made by the Commissioner through the legal representative that the complaints were not being investigated by the Garda which she oversees, and the Minister cannot remember reading that email? That really stretches credibility.

Many other things stretch credibility. We know that the Department miraculously found this email on Thursday. I am not sure when the Tánaiste was made aware of it. Again, it was the investigative journalism of Katie Hannon, along with Mick Clifford, who uncovered the story last year. She put this information into the public domain. The Taoiseach's Twitter account, the Tánaiste, Deputy Fitzgerald, or the strategic information service did not put this information into the public domain. An investigative journalist had to draw the information from the Department and Minister.

A serious number of questions need to be answered. If the Tánaiste cannot answer these questions credibly, there will be serious questions about whether the she can remain within her position. This is a major political crisis because the Taoiseach has put false information on the record of the House. He has now corrected the record of the House, but there are now other serious questions.

When will the Tánaiste make herself available to answer questions, not just to RTÉ but to the Deputies in the House who hold her accountable? Will she make herself available today? Will the Taoiseach, as leader of Fine Gael, ensure that it supports a change to the Order of Business so that we can have proper statements and questions to the former Minister and current Tánaiste?

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