Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

On 28 November last, while announcing the resignation of the former Tánaiste, the Taoiseach stated:

The events of the past few days have exposed major problems once again within a dysfunctional Department of Justice and Equality, including the way important emails were not found and therefore not sent on to the Charleton tribunal during discovery. I am therefore directing that there will be an external inquiry into that to report before Christmas.

Later that afternoon, the Taoiseach said: "As of today, I am ordering an external inquiry into why the Department of Justice and Equality did not find those emails and why they were not sent on to the tribunal." The Taoiseach suggested that the Secretary General to the Government would carry out that review, but after concerns were raised by me and others he agreed that somebody from outside the Civil Service would be more appropriate. He confirmed that he was in the process of appointing a senior counsel to carry out a review "as a matter of urgency".

I have a number of questions arising from that. First, is it still the Taoiseach's intention that this report would be completed before Christmas? Second, has the senior counsel been appointed and, if so, who is it? Third, have the terms of reference been agreed and will the Taoiseach publish them? The last question is important because there are still many unanswered questions as to how the trawl was carried out. Given that the country spent a week watching the Government and Fianna Fáil tie themselves in knots over what the then Minister knew and when she knew it, obviously the accounts of the then Minister and her advisers should have been examined and searched as part of this trawl. However, it was confirmed to me in a recent email from the current Minister that, inexplicably, those three accounts were not searched. Can the Taoiseach provide an assurance that the failure to search these accounts in the trawl will be examined as part of the senior counsel's review? If so, will he direct the Department to check these accounts for correspondence relevant to the disclosures tribunal?

I ask the Taoiseach to reply to my three direct questions. Also, will he include the failure to search those email accounts?

See this speech in context