John Bruton
Ceist:5 Mr. J. Bruton asked the Taoiseach the number of files from his Department sent to the Moriarty or Flood tribunals; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6073/99]
Ceisteanna–Questions. - Tribunals of Inquiry.
Jim Higgins
Ceist:6 Mr. Higgins (Mayo) asked the Taoiseach the files, if any, sought from his Department by the tribunals of inquiry currently sitting; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7636/99]
I propose to take Questions Nos. 5 and 6 together.
On 5 June 1998, at my request, my Department forwarded to the Chairman of the Flood tribunal a copy of a letter written under a false name and dated 29 May 1998 which I received on 3 June. On 22 June copies of correspondence from two other Departments arising from their initial examination of the matter referred to in the letter of 29 May were forwarded to the Chairman. On 14 July 1998 copies of letters dated June 1998 but received in July, addressed to the Attorney General and myself, containing an anonymous allegation of impropriety in a planning matter were forwarded by my Department to the Chairman of the Flood tribunal. That tribunal has sought no files from my Department.
On 28 August 1998 my Department made available to the Moriarty tribunal copies of its records concerning a particular matter which the solicitor to the tribunal had sought by way of a confidential letter of 13 July 1998. Records in my Department's files relating to naturalisation for investment are replicated on Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform files which have been made available to the Moriarty tribunal. While no order of discovery has been made in respect of my Department's records the Department has signalled to the tribunal the availability of its files if at any time the tribunal wishes to access them. Additionally, on 2 and 4 March 1999 my Department brought to the attention of the tribunal a number of records relating to naturalisation for investment which were among miscellaneous working papers of special projects officers formerly assigned to my Department from the IDA and the CII. These records were delivered to the tribunal on 5 March 1999.
My Department will of course continue to give any assistance it can to both tribunals.
Will the Taoiseach tell the House if the former Taoiseach, Mr. Haughey, took away copies of files relating to the passports for investment scheme, copies of which are not retained by his Department? Is the Taoiseach aware of whether Mr. Haughey has files which would be of assistance to the tribunal?
I have no idea. The only information I have is contained in the records of my Department, all of which are available. Records relating to passports for investment and naturalisation applications are copies of files which are in the Department of Justice Equality and Law Reform and the Minister has outlined those at length on a number of occasions, including in an Adjournment debate. The miscellaneous files are of no great significance but the archivists on secondment from the gallery working in the Department came across them and they were passed on.
How comprehensive has the search been in his Department to track any record of files that might be or have been there now or in the past and may have been removed to Kinsealy by the former Taoiseach? I draw to the Taoiseach's attention the fact that on 24 February, in an Adjournment debate, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform indicated there were no further files in the Department of the Taoiseach, yet in response to a parliamentary question from me on 10 March the Taoiseach indicated, that, as he has just mentioned, some further files from the former project officers had been located and sent to the tribunal. It is important that a comprehensive trawl is done in the Department and, if possible, records traced, particularly if they show whether files had been removed from the Department by previous holders of the office.
To avoid any confusion about this matter, the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform was talking about departmental files. The Department of the Taoiseach has no departmental files on the naturalisation scheme and any copies we had would have been available to the Moriarty tribunal, but the tribunal already has those from the Minister. The other notes I mentioned were found following an extensive trawl, but there are approximately 60 cabinets in the Department relating to previous Taoisigh and they have been trawled by a number of people in the Department, including a number of private secretaries to former Taoisigh who would have a good knowledge of the filing system. A total examination of all the files and records is being done for the archivists which hopefully will be finished mid-year. They have done the examination asked of them and they found in three separate folders 22 loose pages with manuscript notations of aide-mémoire type as well as a small number of miscellaneous type records, some of which are dated 1989 and 1990. I understand the other two are folders containing copies of correspondence about individual naturalisation for investment cases, again of an inquiry/representation type. They contained material information about the operation of the scheme in other countries. There is no suggestion of impropriety of any kind in these pages, files or folders and from the nature of the documents it is highly probable that many of them are replicated in the records already made available to the tribunal but, to be sure, we passed them on to the tribunal anyway.
What is the position in relation to the papers in the private office of the former Taoiseach, Charles Haughey? Is there any record of the papers that would have been in his private office in the Department of the Taoiseach or would they have been removed without any record remaining in the Department?
As a former Minister of State the Deputy will know that when Ministers leave office they usually take their private records, representational and constituency files with them. That is the normal practice. People may have taken files but there are no departmental files missing and in the extensive check of 60 cabinet loads of records of former Taoisigh nothing was found other than what I mentioned.
If the former Taoiseach, Charles Haughey, had a strong involvement in this scheme, which apparently was the case, is it the position that any papers in relation to such involvement would more likely have been in his private office rather than the departmental office and that, accordingly, there would not be any record of such involvement in the Department?
What does Deputy O'Keeffe think?
The most helpful reply I can give as I am treading on dangerous ground, is that all of the files on all the cases for naturalisation pre the investment for passports scheme are with the Moriarty tribunal. The Minister informed the House of this some weeks ago.
Those are the official files; I am interested in the unofficial ones.
There is no record of other files.
I understand Question No. 7 has been postponed.