Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

A lot has happened. These questions were tabled before the events of last week. It is important that point be made because the Taoiseach has been clear that the former Tánaiste had to resign, in spite of making no errors. He has conflated two issues and formed a view that the former Tánaiste will be vindicated at the Charleton tribunal, but it is not inquiring into whether the Dáil was misled, whether information was placed before the Dáil or whether it was told the full story. That is the key point. The Taoiseach has acknowledged and I accept that he inadvertently misled the Dáil, but it was misled on this issue, not only once but twice and perhaps more. That is the core point in terms of accountability to the House and that was the challenge we faced.

The Taoiseach also acknowledged that if Deputy Alan Kelly's questions had been answered differently three or four weeks ago, we might not have ended up where we are. It is a fact that the Taoiseach has had to apologise, as has the Minister, Deputy Charles Flanagan, for failures in responding to the House. I have not received a satisfactory explanation as to why the Taoiseach, for example, was not told about the existence of the emails. Likewise, there is no explanation - I was not at the committee meeting this morning - as to why the documents were not sent to the Charleton inquiry, other than that it appears the Department was not asked for them, but that does not stack up, as was clear last weekend. There is nothing coming back by way of a rational explanation.

What happened gave rise to huge mistrust between the House and the Executive and the Department. I refer to the drip-drip emergence of documents over a period. As was clear, Deputy Alan Kelly was asking specific questions, to which there were no answers. For example, despite it being laid out for four weeks that there might not have been a phone call as no one could trace one, it was traced eventually. There was a phone call and there is a record of it in the headquarters in the Phoenix Park. It took four to five weeks to have that question answered. On reflection, it should not have taken that length of time to answer it.

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