Trevor Ó Clochartaigh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Cuirim fáilte roimh an Aire. Cuirim fáilte roimhe i gcónaí agus beidh fáilte roimhe i gcónaí teacht ar an Teach seo. Ó thaobh an comhoibriú a bhí agam leis an Aire ar go leor ceisteanna agus é sa Roinn Dlí agus Cirt agus Comhionannais, fuair mé é an-oibleagáideach go deo.

As a Minister I have always had the height of respect for Deputy Fitzgerald. I respect that fact that she has come into this House and she is discussing the issues. I do think we are getting dragged off on tangents to a certain extent. There are some fundamental questions that do really need to be answered. It is very important that the full content of the email which was received is released so that all of it can be seen. I do not think it is credible and I do not think most people looking at, listening to or observing this scenario feel that it is credible that in the context of a commission dealing with the concerns relating to the most high profile whistleblowers in the State, and one of the biggest issues in the Department, the Minister cannot remember being made aware of this strategy in May 2015. This revelation raises the question as to whether the Department of justice and the Deputy were aware for a whole year of the legal strategy to smear Sergeant McCabe and did nothing. That is the question because as a Minister for justice she did come into this House, she was on the Plinth, she was at Oireachtas committees and she was in the Dáil defending Garda Commissioner O'Sullivan to the hilt, full confidence in her, as were all of her Fine Gael colleagues. To think that she would have known that this was happening and that she still went out to defend her, those are the actions that we are calling into question. They are the ones that we want to draw attention to tonight.

We also need to seek clarity as to what the Minister knew, when she knew it, and who told her. What about the rest of the people in the Department of justice? Can the Minister tell us who else knew about this email? Who released it? Why was it kept under wraps for so long? Why was it not sent to the different commissions? We need full disclosure of all the relevant documents and communications on this specific issue.

Are there going to be more documents found in the back of boxes somewhere in the Department of justice? I refer to the track record of the Department of justice. In fairness to the Leader, it has had a lot of very serious questions asked of it in recent years. We have seen the resignation of two senior officials in that Department. We have seen a Garda Commissioner go over different issues in the Department of justice so its track record is certainly questionable and one cannot deny that there have been questions about the plausibility of some of the evidence that has been given.

We want to know who else in the Department knew about the strategy. Is the Tánaiste aware of other people in the Department who were aware of the strategy? What action did they take on foot of this information because if the email was there somebody surely read it somewhere. Somebody gave the Minister direction that she did not need to do anything about it. Surely, that person's motivations need to be questioned as well in this scenario. Why, when it became apparent last Thursday that an email was received, was it not disclosed immediately rather than a very good journalist having to drag the statement out of the Department of justice? That is a key question that is being asked. Publishing that email is a matter of urgency. We have the height of respect for the Minister as a person but these are very serious and fundamental questions about the way our country is being run and about the role of one of the most senior Ministers in the Government. These are very serious questions that do need to be asked and we have not been given credible answers to date.