Michael McDowell (Dublin South East, Progressive Democrats)

The question we must ask in those circumstances is whether that would be an appropriate use of Garda resources. There are people whose homes are under attack today and will be tomorrow, people who want to walk the streets in safety today and plots to commit crime which require the activities and intelligence of skilled detectives to be applied today in surveillance. Am I to draw all these forces into various offices and ask them to engage in historical research? The people would be of the general view that, with the exception of matters such as the subject of the Morris tribunal, this should be a contemporaneous process.

The two exceptions provided for in section 102 should be used judiciously, if at all. Otherwise, there will be an endless torrent of people saying they were assaulted 30 years ago in a Garda station, or whatever. We cannot have that and have a proper——