I move, "that the Dáil takes note of the following report of the committee on Legislation and Security": (1) the committee met at 10.30 a.m. in the Dáil Chamber on 7 December 1994; (2) the committee deemed it appropriate to question the following persons: the Attorney General, Mr. Eoghan Fitzsimons S.C.; Mr. Harold Whelehan; Mr. Matthew Russell, Senior Legal Assistant, Office of the Attorney General; Mr. James Hamilton, Legal Assistant, Office of the Attorney General; the Research Officer in the Office of the Attorney General who located the Duggan case; the Secretary of the Department of Justice; the Commissioner of the Garda Síochána; the members of the Government in the order in which they made statements in the Dáil on Tuesday, 6 December 1994; the Government Chief Whip; members of the Labour Party who recently resigned from the Government; and Dr. Martin Mansergh, Adviser, Department of the Taoiseach; the committee also agreed that it might call other witnesses if necessary; (3) the Attorney General appeared before the committee subsequently and informed the committee that he would not be in a position to answer questions to the committee in the absence of certain undertakings by the Government and absolute privilege; (4) the committee subsequently requested the attendance of the Taoiseach to inform the committee of the Government's response to the Attorney General's requests; the Taoiseach appeared before the committee at 2.15 p.m. he confirmed the Government's agreement to meet the undertakings requested by the Attorney General and (5) following discussion, the committee concluded that it is unable to proceed further with examination of witnesses who had not been Members of the Oireachtas prior to the enactment of legislation to provide for absolute privilege for witnesses appearing before the committee.
I would like to refer to comments by the Deputy Leader of Fine Gael, Deputy Owen, on "Prime Time" last night.
