Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 25 July 2023
793. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Justice to provide the dates on which a person (details supplied) met, exchanged emails or telephone calls with her officials from the date of appointment to conduct the scoping exercise into the death of a person to publication of the final report on the 3 July 2023. [35733/23]
View answer794. Deputy Mary Lou McDonald asked the Minister for Justice to provide the dates on which a person (details supplied) met, exchanged emails or telephone calls with her or former Ministers from the date of appointment to conduct the scoping exercise into the death of a person to publication of the final report on the 3 July 2023. [35734/23]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 793 and 794 together.
As the Deputy will be aware, the eminent person to whom she refers, Judge Haughton, was appointed by my predecessor to conduct a Scoping Exercise into the circumstances of the tragic death of Shane O'Farrell. As such, he was completely independent and free to reach any conclusions and to make any recommendations he deemed appropriate based on the material at his disposal. The report which I have recently published concluded that no further inquiry or investigation was warranted or necessary.
I have had no personal contact with Judge Haughton. Officials in my Department responded, as required, to the Judge in relation to matters relating to my Department which are dealt with in his report and separately officials were in occasional contact in support of administrative matters concerning the Scoping Exercise. These contacts were over the extended period from 2019 to 2023 and I regret that extracting and collating details of the dates would require a disproportionate use of resources.
