Frances Fitzgerald (Dublin Mid West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I would like to thank the Senators for the range of issues they have raised here tonight.

First of all a number of Senators have raised this question in relation to the email. The full email has been published. I took the decision last night. I circulated it before I spoke in the Dáil. That is the full email. There is nothing being kept back. That is the full email. I do not know where this idea has come from that we have not published the full email. Everything that was in the email is available on the public record. That is the first point that I want to make.

The second issues arises around the fact that I did not interfere with the legal strategy of the Garda Commissioner. If I had done that, as a number of Senators have said, I would be here answering very different questions. I would be answering questions about why I had acted illegally. I am surprised at a number of Senators who have made the point that I should have interfered or done something about the legal strategy. It was not my role. Any barrister or solicitor will tell one, as the Attorney General told me again today again, that there was no role for my former Department or myself getting involved in the legal strategy of the Garda Commissioner. That is absolutely clear.

However, then to go on and suggest that because I did not cross that boundary inappropriately and did not take action regarding whistleblowers, that I did not take initiatives to make sure that whistleblowers were dealt with in the best possible way by An Garda Síochána, is completely inaccurate. One does not follow the other which is what people are implying. What I have tried to point out tonight in my contribution is the range of actions that I took to deal with how whistleblowers were being dealt with in An Garda Síochána, to improve the way that they were being dealt with, and anytime issues came up to see that they were dealt with appropriately, with new procedures and new practices. The Garda Commissioner was the person who invited in Transparency International for advice, again to try to bring independence and objectivity to how whistleblowers were being dealt with within An Garda Síochána.

Clearly, every time issues were brought to my attention about whistleblowers they were raised with me by the Department and indeed with the management of An Garda Síochána. Any time that an issue was raised where, for example, Deputies expressed concerns about the way whistleblowers were being dealt with, I would always raise those issues. To say that because I did not get involved in the legal strategy was in some way to then imply that I did not act on the issues in relation to whistleblowers, is completely inaccurate. What I told the Taoiseach and what the Taoiseach told the Dáil, namely, that I had no hand, act nor part in the legal strategy, I repeat here again tonight. That is accurate. That is truthful.

The information in relation to the email and when it was brought to my attention is truthful. It was last Thursday. The Department had not found that email previously. When I was told of that last Thursday, the Department of justice informed me that it was searching its database to see if there was any other relevant information and it was taking legal advice on the contents of the email and it would revert to me. I have been asked this question, it would revert to me when it had that legal advice. I took the first opportunity to make that information available to the Taoiseach. Then it was placed on the record of the Dáil as Members know and the way the issues have unfolded this week.

A number of points have been made about the fact that I said that I did not remember getting that email. I got thousands of emails. I have made every effort to read every email. I do not remember reading that email as I said but it is likely that I read it. I did not remember it when I was speaking to the Taoiseach and I was subsequently informed of it.When I told the Taoiseach that the first time I heard of the issues that came out was in May 2016, that was accurate. I did not know about the questioning of witnesses, the meeting in Mullingar or the way in which Garda witnesses were being dealt with. That was all news to me, and that is what I was referring to when I spoke to the Taoiseach. Then this email was found subsequently and was brought to my attention.

I wish to take up a point one of the Senators made, namely, that the only defence I am using is that the email said I should not get involved in any way. That is not correct. I am saying I did not get involved in dealing with the legal approach which, by the way, is still to be determined by the Charleton tribunal. The Charleton tribunal is examining the Garda Commissioner's approach, and no doubt information will be put on the record of the Charleton tribunal and it will make a determination on the question it was asked to answer about the legal strategy of the Garda Commissioner.