Results 9,901-9,920 of 20,796 for speaker:Alan Kelly

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: I thank the Chairman and witnesses. I wish the acting Secretary General the best of luck in her role, as I have done already. It is certainly a very challenging role. I have a number of questions and I will jump from area to area. I had been listening and watching some of the committee proceedings earlier. I could not watch it all unfortunately. I refer to the four parliamentary...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: Does Ms McPhillips accept it is not credible to say this information, not given to the tribunal initially, could not be found and given to the tribunal? Thereafter, all of a sudden, once a few defined parliamentary questions were asked, the information was found and eventually given to the tribunal.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: Let us go through this. A small number of people are at high level in the policing section in the Department of Justice and Equality. I am a former information technology manager. I know questions were asked in respect of clients for email servers. However, it is not credible that in a discovery phase, in searches for "O'Higgins" and "McCabe", information could not have been initially...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: I do not buy that.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: I do not believe that. I honestly cannot-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: It is no excuse to say that just because there are specific discovery orders, that we did not provide information. In fact-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: Yes, I apologise. I appreciate that. To clarify, it is not acceptable that because there were specific discovery orders, the Department did not provide the information.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: That is very alarming. I am jumping into this committee today - albeit for a reason - but each member is finding out from the Department of Justice and Equality that, effectively, it did not provide the information because it was not asked for it. That is why I had to ask the questions that I did and ended in the situation that we did-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: That is what I am surmising.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: The facts of the matter are that had I not asked those questions, this information would not have been provided. The discovery orders were made and were answered specifically. I can accept that. What I cannot accept is that the terms of reference, as read out here earlier on, the judge asked for all information to be provided. Ms McPhillips's Department set up the terms of reference and...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: I think it is fair to state the Department of Justice and Equality is leading in the supply of information. I want to move on because I have a number of other questions. We got the message from that. As for the current trawl and the provision of information, today's proceedings are extremely worrying. The idea that there is a whole load of information in the Department and that judgment...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: The reason for urging Ms McPhillips in regard to this is because there are lot of people watching this today who will find her answers unacceptable. This is a national scandal. I agree that it is unprecedented for the Taoiseach to stand up in the Dáil and say the Department is dysfunctional. This is another example of it. Just because the Department is not being asked certain...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: Let me finish my question. I am asking the Department here and now to provide that information to the Charlton tribunal and I cannot understand why it would not do it anyway because the terms of reference, which were read out by Deputy Clare Daly or others, actually require this and the request from Mr. Justice Charlton requests this information as well. I disagree with Ms McPhillips...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: To be helpful, this sounds weird but would the witnesses please go to Mr. Justice Charlton or the tribunal group and ask them if they want the Department to discover everything or discover all strands of every email that has anything to do with the O'Higgins Commission or Maurice McCabe and all private emails? Did Department officials have private emails?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: Did they have private emails that they used for official business.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: And the mobile-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: In fairness, I have lost a lot of time so I have a few questions and I appreciate the Chairman's indulgence. There will be an external review of what has happened. I am very nervous about that because it will be done by an outside senior counsel, fair enough, who will ask or look at whether the Department complied with orders. That is not really the question. Of course, the Department...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: The issue here is that there are a number of retired officials who are obviously very pertinent to this section. We need to ensure that all the information in their heads which could be helpful and all the information that may be on their phones or in their emails is all provided and discoverable. In respect of my next few questions, I am only touching the surface. In respect of the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: To be fair, I understand that. We went through this at the Committee of Public Accounts. I am asking a factual question. This relates to what the Taoiseach said in the Chamber last week. These are factual questions. I am not asking Ms McPhillips to theorise. I am not even sure we would be here if these questions were answered on day one. It is either black or white. The Department...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality: Functioning of the Department of Justice and Equality: Department of Justice and Equality (6 Dec 2017)

Alan Kelly: That cannot be accurate because the Ceann Comhairle allowed my questions on this matter. I have got answers to them that are rubbish. He cannot have ruled differently on a subsequent occasion.