Jonathan O'Brien (Cork North Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I was justice spokesperson for my party when the original terms of reference relating to the disclosures tribunal were being drafted. The former Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Fitzgerald, met all interested parties at the time to discuss those terms. One of the recommendations that was suggested by us and by several other groups was that the Department should be specifically named in the terms. We were told, however, that the phrase "other State entities" would cover that.

Things have moved on a great deal since those terms were drafted and we are in a completely different landscape. We now know, for example, that critical emails which go to the very heart of what Mr. Justice Peter Charleton was examining were withheld for some reason or were not discovered. If they were not found, then there are questions as to how deep was the trawl that took place on two previous occasions, the first being the scoping exercise for Mr. Justice Iarfhlaith O'Neill's inquiry and the second being the discovery order for the tribunal itself. It is astonishing that despite the emails we are discussing not being discovered in the course of those two investigative processes, they were found within a couple of days of parliamentary questions being tabled. To be clear, the emails in question were found in a matter of days after the Taoiseach ordered a deep trawl of all correspondence that could be relevant, yet they were not discovered in the course of two previous exercises, one of which was a discovery order made by a tribunal. There are questions to be answered in that regard. Moreover, I am not 100% certain at this stage that all relevant documentation has been found, because I do not know how deep the trawl which took place last week went. We know it went far enough to find a number of emails that were "new", as the Minister classed them yesterday. To clarify, it was not the case that these emails had been considered but it was decided they should not be handed over to the Charleton tribunal. This was new information being presented by the Department.

The Taoiseach has undertaken to implement an external review of these matters, to be carried out by the Secretary General of his own Department. We have raised some concerns in this regard. In fairness to the Taoiseach and the Minister, they indicated yesterday that they are open to Members of this House nominating or recommending a person outside the Civil Service. I certainly hope we can come to an arrangement whereby an external person is tasked with overseeing the review, rather than a person from within the Department of the Taoiseach or any other Department, or, indeed, a civil servant.

Events have moved rapidly in recent days and there is a perception that the documents we are discussing were withheld intentionally. If that is the case, then a criminal offence took place. In order for justice to be done and be seen to be done, these matters must be addressed in public by the tribunal. The only way that can be done is by revisiting its terms of reference. I encourage the Minister to ensure that there are no further documents, emails or other correspondence within the Department that are of relevance to the investigation. I suggest, in addition, that a similar deep trawl be conducted within the Department of Children and Youth Affairs, particularly in light of the fact that some of the allegations levelled at Detective Sergeant McCabe involved Tusla, which comes under the remit of that Department.

That also needs to be considered by the Government. We need to go beyond the Department of Justice and Equality to ensure that all relevant information is being presented. We are speaking in a bit of a vacuum because we do not know what the Minister's response will be to the proposals to extend the terms of reference. I hope the Minister is open to this and I hope he will sit down with the justice spokespersons to try to accommodate that. I await the MInister's own response on that. If he is not open to it then people will come to their own conclusions.

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