Gerard Craughwell (Independent)

I know it has been a long afternoon for the Minister. His remarks that he is willing to have a look to see what changes he might make were promising and encouraging. Senator McDowell referred to the impact on families. In his response a little while ago, the Minister made the point that, where a Garda investigation is taking place into an individual, it is in the public interest for that information to get into the public domain. Is it? Is it really right that, when somebody is being investigated, for whatever reason, that information should go into the public domain? First and foremost, let us think of what happens to the immediate family of the person who is the subject of the allegation. Let us say it is a child abuse issue. The immediate family have to cope with that but then the extended family have to cope with it, followed by the community and that person's employers. It becomes a massive issue because somebody indiscriminately passed on information that should never have got into the public domain. I would be rather shocked if we were to say that it is not defamation to print or publish something that says an individual is under investigation.

I will go back to the story I opened with last week, the Irish Independent article about a senior politician being involved in a charitable event. Of course, the politician could not be named for legal reasons but the story had originated with An Garda Síochána. First and foremost, that brings An Garda Síochána into disrepute. As the Minister pointed out, there is a criminal case ongoing as the result of a garda leaking information. I believe there is only one such case.