Lorraine Clifford Lee (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Leas-Chathaoirleach and I also thank the Tánaiste for coming to the Chamber tonight. Her statement, however, along with her statement to the Dáil and the answers she gave to questions raised in the Dáil last night, are far from satisfactory. I hope that we will get more information in response to the questions asked by myself and by my Seanad colleagues tonight because as things currently stand, we have more questions than answers.

The Tánaiste released the transcript of an email last night. Why was the email itself not released? The transcript alone is not satisfactory, as the Tánaiste knows. If this were a court of law, and on foot of an order of discovery, then the release of a transcript would not be considered sufficient. The Tánaiste should be able to release the email with whatever necessary redactions made.

The phrase "no hand, act or part" has been repeated ad nauseam over the past few days. It is clear to everyone that the Tánaiste, by failing to act on foot of the information supplied to her as Minister for Justice and Equality, agreed to and actually allowed this adversarial strategy be implemented. She allowed the Garda Commissioner and her legal team to use information that had actually been disproved by the independent review mechanism and by the DPP so as to discredit Sergeant McCabe's reputation. That is a fact. By failing to act on this information the Tánaiste actually agreed with it.

From that point in May 2015 right up to May 2016 she fully supported the Garda Commissioner. When she referred to the O'Higgins commission in the Dáil on 17 May of this year, she said that the commission was inquisitorial rather than adversarial in nature. Prior to that, however, she had been informed of the actual strategy which was, as is clear from the email, certainly adversarial rather than inquisitorial, as she claimed. The Tánaiste was fully aware of that. She claimed that she had forgotten receiving the email and did not act when she was informed of this scandalous strategy. The fact that she did not act, did not see fit to act, and failed to remember getting the email is utterly incredible, particularly considering that she had been appointed Minister for Justice and Equality because the previous Minister had had to resign over this issue. Surely alarm bells should have rung in the Tánaiste's head when she saw this email coming in and if they did not then we really have to call her judgment on this matter into question. She says that she was not aware of this until it came into the public domain but that is clearly not the case.

With regard to the email itself, why was it not found before now and why was it not forwarded to the Charleton commission? Are there other emails? What searches of remaining emails has the Department of Justice and Equality carried out since the Tánaiste's departure from that office? Would this email ever have been found were it not for Deputy Alan Kelly and "Prime Time" digging around to get it?

The Tánaiste was in charge of policy at the Department of Justice and Equality at the time and the Garda Commissioner was answerable to her, so serious questions arise now over the Tánaiste's lack of judgment. This email was not submitted to the Charleton inquiry until yesterday. Why was it not submitted when the Tánaiste found it last week? She allowed the Taoiseach mislead the Dáil and it took several days before he was actually informed of this email, something the Tánaiste has yet to adequately explain. She has said that she was abroad and that the Taoiseach was abroad, but the Department officials were here and I am sure that the Tánaiste is in contact with the Taoiseach when she is out of the country. I hope that she will be able to answer some of my questions and those of my colleagues.