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). He also informed the official of his discussion about this which took place earlier that day (25th February) with two officials of Tusla and with senior Gardaí. Mr Elliot 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 through that route.
An internal process review is being conducted by Scouting Ireland on foot of the report by the Barrister. The Minister has no plans to publish a redacted version of the report until such time as the review has concluded.
