Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Deputy Pat Rabbitte, to the House. He has informed me he wishes to make a statement to the House. For the information of the House, Article 28.8 of the Constitution provides that every member of the Government shall have the right to attend and be heard in each House of the Oireachtas. Before I call the Minister, I want to make it clear that I will not allow any debate on the matter. Once the Minister has made his contribution, the matter is closed. I call on the Minister-----

Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)
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On a point of order, do you not think it is appropriate that the Minister would make a statement and then respond to questions-----

Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)
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I have made my ruling clear to the House. The Minister has the right to be heard in the House.

Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)
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It is not very democratic.

Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)
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I ask the Minister to make his statement.

Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)
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I thank the Cathaoirleach for giving me this opportunity. The defamation action to which Senator Leyden referred in this House yesterday was, I understand, settled by RTE on confidential terms but without any admission of liability. While I was not party to that case, I had agreed to appear as a witness. I was not even aware of this case until a matter of weeks before it was listed for hearing and I had no hand in determining the manner in which it was defended or settled. I understand, however, that the settlement details as reported are inaccurate.

The case relates to remarks I made in 2006 about the circumstances in which a constituent, Dean Lyons, confessed to gardaí to a savage double murder at Grangegorman that he did not commit. I pursued this potential miscarriage of justice over many months in the other House and called for an inquiry into how this could have happened.

Mr. Lyons's confession set out details of the crime, some of which could only have been known to the murderer or the Garda Síochána. He was 24 years old, a heroin addict and, at the time of his arrest, was sleeping rough and in hostels in the north inner city. He was also borderline intellectually handicapped.

Mr. George Birmingham, SC, subsequently Mr. Justice Birmingham, when the inquiry was eventually conceded, found in the report on his statutory investigation that: Dean Lyons acquired the detailed information in regard to these crimes from the gardaí who were interviewing him; the written record maintained of the non-video-recorded interviews was not comprehensive and matters were excluded that would have assisted in the assessment of the reliability of Dean Lyons; and the procedure for the taking of statements as set out in the judges' rules was not followed.

It is important to stress, and I accept, that the report also found that Dean Lyons was not abused or ill-treated during the detention. However, and I quote: "Dean Lyons was able to provide accurate details of murders it is now accepted that he did not commit, due to the manner in which he was interviewed by Gardaí". It is also important to stress that the Birmingham report found that some members of the investigation team had misgivings about the degree to which reliance could be placed on what was said by Dean Lyons. One garda referred to him as a "Walter Mitty". Indeed, I fully accept that the incident room manager, Detective Garda Alan Bailey, who was the plaintiff in the action against RTE, not only experienced reservations but expressed them at the time.

I called repeatedly for an inquiry into the Dean Lyons affair and, I believe, I did so with justification. It was and remains a troubling case. The Grangegorman murders were savage and brutal, and Dean Lyons was wrongfully charged with them. It was only because, during the course of a second and unrelated awful case, another man confessed to these crimes, that Mr Lyons was released after eight months in custody. The Garda Commissioner, after what he called a "comprehensive probative inquiry", declared he was satisfied that Mr. Lyons had no part in those murders. He published a notice in the newspapers apologising for any embarrassment caused. The apology was, of course, to the Lyons family, who are constituents of mine, since Dean Lyons had died in Manchester.

To date, no-one has been brought to trial in respect of these brutal murders. This is a heavy burden for the families and friends of the deceased to bear. I believe all the circumstances of the affair more than justify my involvement in ensuring that as much as possible of the details should be brought to public attention.

Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)
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Is that all there is?

David Norris (Independent)
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Will a copy of the statement be provided? It was made at very short notice.

Paddy Burke (Fine Gael)
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That is it. I thank the Minister for coming into the House to clarify the issue and to make his statement to the House.