Brendan Ryan (Labour)

I apologise for my late arrival. I had assumed that the Independent benches would be awash with people wishing to speak. I am reluctant, although I probably will be tempted, to accord political blame on this question. I remember when the issue of redress was being debated and the then Minister for Education and Science came into the House. In response to every question I asked him about things that were not as I might have wished in his proposals, I was told that it was what Ms Justice Laffoy wanted. I remember that being said on between three and five occasions in this House. I do not wish to appear to be suggesting that it was otherwise, but one has no alternative to accepting the Minister's word. I fully accept that he believed matters to be so. However, I now realise that there is every possibility that what the Minister, Deputy Woods, thought and, I feel, sincerely believed, Ms Justice Laffoy wanted was entirely different from what she said to him. Government Ministers have a capacity to filter opinions expressed to them to convince themselves that what people are saying to them is what they want to hear. I do not believe that Ms Justice Laffoy was one of those people who would have tempered her opinion. Her subsequent interim reports seem to give lie to any suggestion that the Department of Education and Science and the Minister were co-operating enthusiastically and efficiently with her investigations.