Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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253. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if officials in his Department were asked for or gave permission to the legal team for the former Garda Commissioner in respect of its legal strategy at the O'Higgins commission of inquiry. [48889/17]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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256. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if officials within his Department were contacted in relation to the cross-examination of a person (details supplied) at the O'Higgins commission; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48762/17]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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257. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when his Department first became aware that the former Garda Commissioner had instructed her legal team in the O'Higgins cmmission to call evidence from two senior Garda officers with a view to establishing that a person (details supplied) was motivated by malice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48763/17]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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258. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when his Department first learned that the former Garda Commissioner's legal team was not going to call evidence in the O'Higgins commission from two senior Garda officers in relation to a meeting they had with a person (details supplied) in 2008; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48764/17]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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259. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the involvement his Department had in deciding the witnesses that would be called to give evidence in the O'Higgins commission by the legal team for the former Garda Commissioner; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48765/17]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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260. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the extent of communication between his Department and the legal team for the Garda and the Garda Commissioner in the O'Higgins commission; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48766/17]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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261. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality when his attention was drawn to the fact that the former Garda Commissioner had instructed her legal team to attack the motivation and integrity of a person (details supplied) at the O'Higgins commission; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48767/17]

Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail)
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262. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality if officials within his Department took issue with or disapproved of the instruction of the former Garda Commissioner to her legal team to attack the motivation and integrity of a person (details supplied) at the O'Higgins commission; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [48768/17]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 253 and 256 to 262, inclusive, together.

I have clearly stated in response to previous Parliamentary Questions on this matter that my Department did not have any input into the instructions provided by the Garda Commissioner to her legal team at the O'Higgins Commission of Investigation. It should be obvious to the House that it would have been wholly inappropriate for my predecessor or my Department to seek to influence in any way the Garda Commissioner's instructions or to have direct contact with her legal team.

In particular there is no question of my Department having any say in what witnesses would be called before the Commission of Investigation. Consequently there can be no question of my Department being asked to, or offering, advice or approval for the Commissioner's approach to the Commission of Investigation.

I can assure Deputies, that there is no question of my Department having had prior knowledge of any legal strategy adopted by the Garda Commissioner at the Commission of Investigation.

My Department has clarified that my predecessor was made aware in May 2015, after the event, of an issue having been raised at the Commission of Investigation. However, as also previously stated, neither my predecessor nor my Department was aware of certain issues which arose at the Commission of Investigation until the matter entered the public domain almost a year later.

I should mention that in May 2016 the Garda Commissioner wrote to the Department referring to the public concerns arising from the media reports in question. The Commissioner requested that matters arising from the O'Higgins Commission of Investigation pertaining to a 2008 meeting in Mullingar be referred to the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (GSOC) for investigation. On 16 June 2016 the former Minister referred the matter to GSOC for investigation under Section 102(5) of the Garda Síochána Act (as amended). GSOC's investigation into this matter is on-going.

My Department has, today, written to the Disclosures Tribunal in relation to the manner in which, in May 2015, my Department was made aware that an issue had been raised at the O'Higgins Commission of Investigation. It will be for the Tribunal to decide on what action, if any, it should take in relation to the matter and, as a result, I do not propose to comment further on it.