The Deputy will appreciate that it is not the practice for the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform to give detailed information to the House about an individual Garda investigation or operation, except where the circumstances of an investigation are so exceptional that such a course in deemed appropriate.
All I propose to say in this case is that I have been informed by the Garda authorities that the incident to which the question refers occurred on 17 November 1997 and was investigated by the special investigation unit of the Department of Agriculture and Food and that, last month, the Department forwarded a file to the Garda for further investigation. I am further informed that the Garda investigation has commenced and is likely to take some time to complete.