The evidence given by the Secretary General of my Department to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse at the Phase III hearings on 12th and 13th June 2006 was based on a detailed examination of files held in my Department in relation to the industrial and reformatory school system and related matters. These files were previously provided to the Commission on an informal basis or under discovery direction.
In the context of seeking to fulfil the Department's obligations to provide the Commission with all available records relevant to the Commission's inquiry, my Department made contact with existing and former staff who may have been in a position to assist the Department in the identification and retrieval of relevant Department records and to address the issue of missing files and gaps in the Department's archive. My Department did not contact former staff, including the former member of staff referred to by the Deputy, to ask about their version of events as recorded in the Department's files. It is a matter for the Commission to interview persons about their involvement in events of relevance to its inquiry and, where requested by the Commission, contact details of former Department staff involved in such events were provided to the Commission.
I would like to confirm that my Department holds documentation on file in relation to claims made by the former member of staff in question and all of this documentation has been provided to the Commission in compliance with a Discovery Order from the Commission in June 2003.
