Eoghan Harris (Independent)

I misspoke earlier when I stated Dónal de Róiste was retired on 25 April 1969. The correct date was 27 June 1969.

Although politics gets a bad press, this has been a good day for politics. I thank the Minister of State and Senators Kieran Phelan, Norris, O'Toole, Ó Domhnaill and others for their contributions. I was particularly struck by Senator Burke's contribution in creating a picture of the world that lies between the lines of, as it were, the official record, of which the Minister of State's contribution reminded us. Reading through his statement is like reading through the files in the case. Everything is there except the truth. It is like statistics. When taken out of context they lie and do not tell the truth. Facts are the same in the sense that one can have all the facts but unless they are contextualised, they do not tell one the truth.

On the question why Dónal de Róiste did not do something with his solicitor, Don Mullan has this to say:

As previously discussed, Roche went to a solicitor on 1 May 1969, the day after the 'third interview' [with the Deputy Judge Advocate General] and the advice given was to 'do nothing' until the solicitor wrote and ascertained what was happening. Tragically for Roche, and through no fault of his own, it now appears that the solicitor's firm failed to take immediate action.

That is only one of the contexts that were missing. Fortunately, for the past 20 years, Mr. de Róiste's solicitor, Mr. Eamon Carroll of Noonan Linehan Carroll Coffey solicitors of North Main Street in Cork, has been a powerful advocate on his behalf.

The bits between the cracks, the human misery, were found out today and described by Senators who spoke. It may be that the letter of the law was applied to Dónal de Róiste but the spirit of the law and humanity were not. I reiterate that down the years everybody concerned - journalists, politicians, Ministers and the Army - constantly kicked to touch. While everybody acted within their rights, they did not go the extra bit of the road to catch the human side, about which Senator Burke spoke so eloquently.

The bits between the cracks were this. The case of Dónal de Róiste has been compared to the Dreyfus case. That may seem to be a highfalutin comparison but Dreyfus only spent a number of years in penal servitude whereas Dónal de Róiste has spent 41 years living with the psychological torment of having his career blasted at the beginning.

A second lieutenant in the Army is a like a second year student in college. A young man of that age is capable of any foolishness and if he was particularly foolish - I believe Dónal de Róiste was a particularly naive individual - it is up to the State to act in loco parentis, as a parent, when making a case for him. He was a bit of an eejit in some ways and if he was too much of an eejit to make a case for himself and mind the back of his head, we, the State and body politic, have an obligation to do so on his behalf. The beginning of looking after Mr. de Róiste in loco parentis has started today with the courageous decision of the Taoiseach to take the matter on board. The Taoiseach, who is often traduced, had every temptation to kick to touch on this issue, as previous Administrations have done. He did not do so but instead took the matter on board.