In the afternoon of Monday 25th February, during a telephone call on another matter, Mr Ian Elliott advised an official of my Department of the existence of the letter from Tusla (dated 18th February) and of his discussion about this earlier that day (25th February) with two officials of Tusla and with senior Gardaí. He was later asked by the same official to set out the details in an email. He sent an email on the morning of Tuesday 26th February to the official as requested.
Later that day another senior official of the Department responded to his email and asked that he furnish the Department with a copy of the letter from Tusla, Mr Elliott refused to do so. Another senior official of the Department was, in the meantime, in contact with Tusla and got a copy of the letter by email at 10.17 a.m on 27th February 2019. This was forwarded to me and I received a copy by email at 10.27 a.m. on 27th February 2019.