David Norris (Independent)

I am horrified by the Minister of State's reply. If he thinks this matter is closed, he has another think coming because it most certainly is not. Much of the material in his reply is simply untrue. He stated:

[T]he Department has endeavoured to assist him both within the constraints of the Act and outside the Act. He has been granted access to all relevant records.

That is not true. It is a lie. In 2005, the former Minister for Finance, Deputy Quinn, asked a series of questions and was given an answer on the matter. Subsequently, an important memo, which I put on the record, was withheld from the person concerned. That memo would have allowed him to clear his name. The Minister of State's Department has colluded in the framing of an Irish citizen, has continued to violate his rights and has produced a lot of waffle to cover up the fact that it got itself into a serious situation. If it had vindicated his human rights, it might have exposed itself to a significant fine. That is what the matter is all about. It is completely untrue to claim that the Department assisted in every way. It withheld documents, prevented him from clearing his name and then washed its hands with this waffly statement. I hope the person concerned, who is sitting in the Visitors Gallery, will be able to use what has been said today to raise a storm about this issue because it is not satisfactory that any Irish citizen should be subject to this kind of behaviour.

Given the extraordinary and explosive nature of this story, I originally found it difficult to believe. I confirmed it with Deputy Quinn who said that a catastrophic violation of an Irish citizen's human rights had taken place. However, the Minister of State's pathetic answer has not advanced the matter whatsoever. I do not mean that personally.