Carol Nolan (Offaly, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I appreciate the opportunity to speak on this very important issue. It is a shame that we are still discussing the issue. The events of the past week have raised serious questions regarding the culture in the Department of Justice and Equality. The fundamental question is why the documents at the heart of this controversy were not discovered much earlier and sent to the Charleton tribunal. It has become very clear that without questions being raised in this House and the subsequent tabling of motions of no confidence, these documents might never have appeared before the tribunal.

Our motion, and I commend my colleague, Deputy Ó Laoghaire, on putting it forward, is very simple. We call on the Dáil to agree that the terms of reference of the Charleton tribunal need to be amended in order that the Minister for Justice and Equality and the Department officials are explicitly included. The possibility of a deliberate failure to disclose central documents by both the Department and the Minister needs to be examined. The motivation for any such action must also be examined in fine detail.

The fact is that this trawl of documents was done by the Department in order to ensure that all relevant documents were disclosed to the tribunal. It was not done, as it should have been, to ensure that justice was given to the McCabe family. If justice for the McCabe family was a priority, which it should have been, a trawl would have been carried out much sooner. It was merely done to avoid a general election and save the political careers of Fine Gael TDs and perhaps even Fianna Fáil ones too. It makes a mockery of the tribunal. The Taoiseach's suggestion of a review of the Department of Justice and Equality to be carried out by an official in his Department is laughable. We need to get to the bottom of this scandal and an independent investigation needs to be done. We need to ensure that we have the full facts and establish the truth as to what went on in the Department.

I call on all Deputies to support this motion in order that this work can take place and the McCabe family can see justice once and for all.

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