Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Somebody requesting a confidential document is an official request to the Taoiseach. The Tánaiste was the Taoiseach at the time. It falls under the Freedom of Information Act and it is very clear. There has been a judgment in relation to this in the past. Therefore, it is an official record.

There was not just one communication the Tánaiste had with Dr. Ó Tuathail in relation to this document. The Tánaiste had at least one more communication that we know of. Are both records deleted from the Tánaiste's phone? Were there other records in relation to seeking this document and the Tánaiste providing this confidential not-for-disclosure document to his friend? Were those records also deleted from the Tánaiste's phone? It is important that we know this.

We have requested that the documents - the one that the Tánaiste received from the Minister, Deputy Harris, as he claimed, early in April and the one that the Tánaiste asked of the Secretary General of the Department of Health on 10 April - would be published with all communication. Will the Tánaiste makes sure that happens straightaway so that everybody can scrutinise those documents because it is hard to follow some of this? The Cabinet agreed this on 9 April, but on 10 April the Tánaiste looked to the Secretary General for another copy. At 2 p.m. on 10 April, the Tánaiste looked for Dr. Ó Tuathail's address. Can the Tánaiste also talk to us about whether there was a second document, one that was stamped not "Confidential: Not for circulation" but "Working draft: Confidential"?

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