Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I ask the Minister again to give this House an assurance by asking the officials in his Department to state comprehensively whether all information, and not just "other" information, was provided. There is a limit to how many times I can ask the Minister to do this. He can choose to do it. He does not have to do it. We can ask questions. It seems to me that it is nonsense to suggest that the terms of reference for the tribunal, which we agreed in this House, would have been the same if the information which has come into the public domain had been provided to Mr. Justice O'Neill. There would have been a whole module on the Department of Justice and Equality. The Minister has said that the Department gave full disclosure to the tribunal. I remind him that it did so last December after I had spent months asking numerous questions which we will not go back into. It was only then that this information was produced by these officials and others. I do not think it is credible for the Minister to say here that he is 100% certain that everything was given to Mr. Justice O'Neill. I believe that if the information which has come into the public domain had been given to Mr. Justice O'Neill, his report would have been different and the basis on which the current tribunal is sitting would be different. In such circumstances, there would be a whole module relating to the Department of Justice and Equality. I would not have had to drag all this information out of the Department and into the public domain. There would be new witnesses and new information would be provided to the Department. I do not want to end up going down another road whereby we have to ask numerous questions to get information. Will the Minister ask the officials what I have called on him to ask them? By doing this, he will cover himself as well.

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