Leaders' Questions

Philip and Kim, and their children Callum and Jayden, should be alive today. They were murdered in a deliberate attack on their home. Nadia and Elliott, two children, are fighting for their lives in hospital as we speak. I knew this family and I am devastated for them, as are people from Waterford and across the island. We all know the suffering of this family and the grief is unimaginable. I commend all of the first responders, and I acknowledge the neighbours, emergency services and medical teams who came to their aid, and the teams in Crumlin who are working hard to save the lives of the two children there. All of these first responders and medics are heroes. This murderous attack showed utter contempt for human life. Anyone who planned, ordered or carried out this attack must face the full force of the law. The Garda must establish the facts but we know, as I am sure the Minister does, that drug-related intimidation must also be confronted head-on. Other families are looking out their front doors and wondering could their children be next. No family should have to put their children to bed wondering whether someone will set fire to their home before morning yet drug gangs and organised criminals are inflicting precisely this terror on families. They threaten children, they assault people, they burn homes, they murder people and they pursue parents, friends and even neighbours for money. I want to be very clear about this point because there has been a lot of media coverage over the past 48 hours. This is not debt collection; it is violent criminality and we need to call it what it is. Vulnerable families and innocent people need to be protected and kept safe. Every community has the right to live free from the violence and harassment of organised crime; to let children play outside as we all do, and I have two children; to report crime without fear of retaliation; for children to sleep safely in their beds and for parents not having to worry about attacks on their home. The State has a responsibility to uphold these rights in every community. Yesterday The Irish Times reported 113 arson attacks on council properties were recorded by just 14 local authorities over five years, with 50 last year alone. These figures exclude privately rented and owner occupied homes. Last week gardaí were investigating another petrol bomb attack at a home in Drimnagh. The danger is clear and evident, and it has been widespread and known for years. There are also reports that the English family endured earlier threats and attacks and sought help because they feared for their safety. This also demands answers. Today I am asking for four commitments. Will the Government ensure that Waterford has the Garda resources needed for this investigation, including the support of the organised crime unit and the Criminal Assets Bureau? Will the Government ensure that families reporting threats have all the supports they need, including an urgent risk assessment, a named contact and a co-ordinated protection plan with access to safe emergency accommodation when needed? Will the Government commit to a review of how threats and requests for help are managed and how families are supported? Will the Minister for justice report to this House next week on the wider response to drug-related intimidation? The response to these murders cannot be outrage today and forgotten tomorrow. The people of Waterford will not wear this and the people of this island will not wear it. We have to face down these criminal gangs. These are cowards and what happened in Waterford has people's hearts broken. It should never, ever have happened.

Hear, hear.

I thank Deputy Cullinane for raising this issue today. I join him and many colleagues, and the entire country, in offering my condolences to the family of Philip, Kim, Jayden and Callum, and to acknowledge there are two children fighting for their lives in hospital after what was an absolutely appalling, vicious attack on a family who should still be with us today and that we should not be talking about in the Chamber, quite simply. I fully agree with Deputy Cullinane that this is not debt collection or anything other than violent criminality. Drug debt collection is an absolute scourge on our society and community. We all need to commit again today to collectively working together to try to stamp it out. There is not a single person in the House who is not appalled by what has happened. I also commend those who came to their aid - I have read the newspaper articles like a lot of people, and I can only imagine - those first responders did everything in their power to try to save them. To their community and neighbours who are reeling from all of this we offer our full support. The Garda Commissioner and the Minister for justice have spoken very clearly and given a commitment already on any resource required or needed by An Garda Síochána, whether the crime unit, CAB or anyone else in the local area, to ensure those who are responsible for this appalling act and crime are held accountable. Deputy Cullinane has given this commitment already from the Commissioner and from the Minister before today. What this has highlighted is that this is not an isolated incident and it is not something that has happened to just one family. It is something many families are going through. I listened to Siobhán Maher from DRIVE this morning, who outlined the supports and resources that are there and available for people. The DRIVE programme brings together law enforcement, health services, social services and community organisations specifically to try to address drug-related intimidation through a co-ordinated and, importantly, a victim-centred approach. These are victims we are talking about. Importantly, she also outlined that for those who do not feel they can go to the Garda there are other routes. Part of the problem for people is that they do not feel they can go to the Garda but we do need to encourage people to go directly to the Garda. In An Garda Síochána we have a dedicated unit and a dedicated anti-drugs strategy through Operation Tara that looks at and deals with quite a number of things. The Garda National Drugs and Organised Crime Bureau leads on tackling all forms of drug trafficking and the supply of illicit drugs. A clear focus and priority of this work is to tackle drug-related intimidation. This is a priority for An Garda Síochána and it is really important that where people find themselves in this situation that they come forward to the Garda so it can respond in the most appropriate way. It is important, as Deputy Cullinane has outlined, that we continue to resource and support the Garda in its work. This is exactly why in this year's budget the overall budget for An Garda Síochána increased by over €150 million. It is why there is further funding to make sure we can provide spaces for 1,000 additional Garda in Templemore, make sure we have the specific teams and specialised teams that can assist families when they find themselves in these difficult circumstances and, most importantly, that the people who are responsible for these appalling crimes are identified and held accountable. This is what we need to ensure happens here. On Deputy Cullinane's questions on a review, I will engage with the Minister for justice and pass on the question regarding whether there is more that we need to do. Unfortunately, any type of an incident, attack or murder like this has to raise questions as to whether there is more we can do or more that could have been done, and whether there are actions we can take arising from this that would save somebody else's life and how we then move quickly to implement them. I will take Deputy Cullinane's requests directly to the Minister and ask him to respond directly to him on it.

There is a real sense of sadness and trauma in Waterford. Deputy McGuinness and I stood on a street yesterday and the day before and we spoke to residents. We met family members of those murdered at a vigil yesterday. Hearts are broken beyond belief but there is also anger. People are looking for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. We are talking about the people involved in the attack on the home but also the people who gave the orders and the people behind them. These thugs depend on fear and silence. The Minister is right that people can be fearful. There can be no silence in this Chamber from anybody. We have to stand up for those communities. The State has to be there for families when they are under threat. It is evident that more needs to be done. There are broken hearts but there is also resilience and a determination from the community in Waterford that we are not going to let these lost lives be forgotten about. We want to see change in this area. We owe this to the four people who were murdered and those two poor children who are still fighting for their lives in hospital today.

Hear, hear.

I thank the Deputy. Those people are in all of our hearts today. We send our deepest condolences to their family and, as the Deputy said, to the community which is suffering. I agree fully with the Deputy's point that it is essential that it is not just those who carried out the act directly but also those they work for and who directed these types of actions. Last week we recognised that it is 30 years since the Criminal Assets Bureau, CAB, was established. It was established for the very reason that those who responsible for ordering actions to take place were never held accountable. They were able to conduct and carry out their work immune from any type of prosecution. We must make sure that the structures there for the State can be applied not just in this case but in any case where there are these types of appalling, despicable behaviours and actions being carried out on a community and family that should have nothing to do with this. Those responsible for carrying out this act should also be held accountable. The Minister and the Garda Commissioner have been clear that any resources required by the local gardaí or national organisations and agencies that will help to deal with this crime will be made available to make sure those responsible are held accountable.

On behalf of the Labour Party, I join the Minister and Deputy Cullinane in extending our sincere sympathies to the wider English family and to the people of Waterford who are going through a desperate situation at the moment. As the Minister will know, I have been dealing in my community with the scourge of drug debt intimidation for far too long. We know it takes lives and destroys the lives of those who are left behind and in the middle of it. We need to say "No" to drug debt intimidation and have a zero-tolerance response. The Minister knows that for the first time in a generation, 300,000 workers across the public service were on strike yesterday. There was an overwhelming mandate for another day of strike action next week. Plans are already being made for additional rolling actions over the next few weeks and months. The Government has a maximum of 24 hours to avert next Wednesday's planned action. The ball is firmly in the Government's court. The Minister will not have visited picket lines at hospitals, council yards, schools, primary care centres and Intreo offices yesterday but my Labour colleagues and I did. Let me tell the Minister what the hundreds of striking workers I met yesterday told me. They are hurting because of a pattern of gaslighting and disrespect expressed time and again since this Government took office. They are hurting because PAYE workers were thrown under the bus in budget 2026 in favour of chicken chains. They are hurting because they saw the Government write a cheque for those who brought the country to a standstill last April while they and their unions, people who played by the rules, were told that when their pay deal expired in June, their lives and work just did not matter as much. They were spoofed by the Tánaiste, who told them to expect a workers' budget. They know that what landed was anything but that. They are in no mood to be told that basic indexation for wage rises is a tax cut. Last week's budget was one final opportunity ahead of the first national public sector strike in a generation to change the mood music and it failed miserably. They also know that in last week's budget nothing was done to shift the dial on class sizes or health waiting lists. They know too that this is a fight for every worker and for everyone's living standards. As one striker rightly asked me yesterday, how can we trust a Government that does not even believe that workers are entitled to a living wage? They were right. This is the situation the Government has contrived to bring about for itself. We have had two months of deliberate inertia and inaction on a new public sector pay deal. The Government has sleepwalked into a crisis. We note the perceptible change in tone from the Minister, Deputy Chambers, last night but he has an awful lot of work to do to restore trust and confidence. This afternoon, the Labour Party will present a motion to the Dáil on public sector pay and a new public sector agreement. The motion calls for three things. Will the Taoiseach make a substantive and substantial proposal to unions today to allow the beginning of the end of this dispute to come into view? Will the Government formally drop its arbitrary preconditions on how and when the question of pay will be settled? Will it commit to the principle of keeping public sector incomes ahead of inflation in any putative new agreement?

I thank the Deputy. At the outset, I acknowledge and recognise the invaluable and significant contribution that our public sector workers make to this country and the impact they have on all our lives, whether it is those who work in our health services, not just in our hospitals but across our communities, the teachers and those in our schools who teach our children, the officials I work with in my Department on a daily basis, or the many thousands of people who provide services to each and every one of us every day. The work they do is valued by this Government. We are now in a position where we want to be around the table so we can provide an increase in wages and get to a point where we are in substantive talks and discussions to discuss not just pay but also working conditions and the many other elements and chapters of a public sector pay agreement. I did speak to people on the picket line yesterday. Naturally, I have spoken to many people over the last while. We are talking about sisters, brothers, cousins and other family members, so we have all discussed and spoken about this. The very clear message I got is that people want to be around the table. They want the Government and the unions to be talking about pay and conditions, the fact that services and the demand on services have increased, that we have a growing population and that there is more that we need to do. They also want us, as a Government, as I believe we have, to recognise the pressure that people are under. That is why this year's budget - I will disagree with the Deputy here - was specifically focused on how we can support people with the cost of living, and not just those in our public sector but all workers, recognising that there has been an increase in fuel costs, an increase in energy prices, an increase in grocery prices, and an increase in all of our daily costs. This has happened because of an increase in inflation and because of so many conflicts and other issues happening around us. That is why we had significant changes to our tax bands, why we introduced specific supports to try to reduce the cost of childcare and why there was an increase in the overall budget of the Department of Health. As I said, it is why we have had an increase in funding for the Garda, the Defence Forces and for all our public services. Importantly, this was a budget that made sure that those working, whether on the lowest wage, where we increased the overall wage rate, or in the middle-income bracket, could take back a little bit more of their money. Turning to the point the Deputy made about the public pay agreement, €1.2 billion was specifically set aside for us to be able to start these talks. That is not the complete picture. We know from previous public sector pay agreements, the last two in fact, that the final agreement was well above and beyond what the inflation rate was at the time. That is the point we want to get to. It requires the Government and the unions sitting down together. I believe that is what the unions want. I believe the goodwill is there on both sides. We all want the Government and the unions to sit down now, so we can get into substantive talks, and, importantly, reach an agreement that will mean public sector workers see their increases as quickly as possible, as well as addressing other elements that we will naturally be talking about.

I have heard a lot from Government representatives, especially over the past few weeks as yesterday's strike came into view, that they respect public servants and that many of them are, naturally enough, related to public servants but when does respect become real delivery? Over the past two weeks, we have seen the Taoiseach and the Minister for public expenditure essentially taunt public sector workers and question their democratic mandate to hold the day of action they had yesterday. We must remember there was an overwhelming mandate among public sector workers for the action we saw yesterday. We all need to understand why that action was taken. We have heard the Minister for public expenditure say in recent days that pay would not be prioritised in the context of any public sector pay talks. He then said that it would be prioritised along with other matters in a meaningless and pointless letter to the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, ICTU, on Monday, in a last-minute effort to try to avert Wednesday's action. We note that his tone changed perceptibly on the “Six One” news yesterday. Will the Minister, Deputy McEntee, answer a basic, straightforward question? Will a substantial proposition be tabled by the Taoiseach today, because time is running out to avert next Wednesday’s day of action, to at least bring into view the prospect of this dispute being resolved?

I respect and will uphold every single day a person’s right to protest. We live in a democracy, and thank God we do because it means people can protest and highlight issues of concern to them. Like all of us, I will protect a person’s right to protest on any matter. That is the country we live in, thankfully. As the Minister and the Taoiseach have said very clearly, no preconditions have been set down for any talks. That is important here. There is no precondition that stops us or prevents the Minister from engaging directly on pay first. He wrote a letter again this week outlining the fact that if that were to be the first chapter, he would be open to that. There are no preconditions, in the same way that any previous pay discussion or engagement had no preconditions. What we know from the outcome of the previous pay negotiations was that the overall agreement reached was for an increase of over 9% when inflation at the time was over 6%. What the Government and previous Governments have shown is that we are committed to the public sector more broadly. It has increased by about 25% in size in the last number of years. Importantly, we are committed to and absolutely respect the role public sector workers play and have in our society. That means responding by ensuring there are high wages. We want to increase those wages, and that can only happen if people get around the table. Like Deputy Nash, I hope that will happen in the next few hours.

The Government’s target for housing growth in Laois is 11,200 over a period of nine years. That is a population growth of 33,000, or 33%, in a nine-year period. That creates a demand on services. One of the most pressing issues is bed capacity in hospitals and nursing homes. Currently, we have capacity for a population of about 65,000 in those services. Portlaoise hospital has been provided with a new accident and emergency unit and other improvements. The Minister, Deputy MacNeill, visited earlier in the year to open some of those facilities. Those facilities are welcome because there is a chronic shortage of space in the hospital. The staff are doing their very best. When the Minister visited, she made the welcome announcement of approval for a new 48-bed wing, which is excellent news but it needs to be funded. Bed capacity in the EU stands at 516 beds per 100,000. In the case of Ireland, it is 289 beds. Portlaoise hospital’s bed capacity stands at 171 beds. With a steep growth in population and an ageing population, this will not meet demand. Regarding public nursing homes, Mountmellick has capacity for 58 beds and a new wing is due to open soon at a cost of €31 million or €32 million. That will be a good day’s work when it opens. The problem, however, is that it will not deliver extra capacity because the plan is to close two existing 25-bed wards and move residents out to the new wing. Therefore, there will still only be 58 beds. There is an opportunity to keep one of those wards open, namely, St. Anne’s ward. It was refurbished in recent years and is HIQA approved. It should be kept open, which would provide Mountmellick with capacity for 83 beds in total. There is a huge demand for those beds. The case of Abbeyleix is simple. It has 22 beds at the moment, between respite and step-down beds. A total of six beds are currently taken up in the hospital because the day care centre is housed within it. The Government has an extra €1.9 billion earmarked for capital spending in health this year. We are not looking for three new hospitals but the planned new wing in Portlaoise hospital needs to be funded. The new modular day care unit for Abbeyleix and the retention of St. Anne’s ward are critical for capacity. Will the Government commit to providing the relatively modest amount of money to deliver and cater for the massive population growth in the county in the form of the new wing for Portlaoise hospital and a small day care centre for Abbeyleix to free up bed space? Keeping St. Anne’s ward open requires no capital funding. The Minister will see that when she visits again.

At the outset, it is important to outline – this is connected to the previous question raised - that investment in our public services is increasing. It has increased over the years because our population is increasing, as is the demand. When it comes to our health service in particular, because of the investment in years gone by, including the specific resources and investment allocated to preventative and community care as opposed to responding directly in our emergency departments and otherwise, people are living longer, so there is a significant demand on resources more generally, including in Portlaoise hospital and other hospitals. That is why the budget for health in 2027 represented a €1.6 billion increase, or 6.2%, in current spending. On top of that, there is an increase of €160 million, or 10.3%, in capital spending. This gives us a record level of funding for health services to, first and foremost, benefit our patients, including those in the Deputy’s county and constituency, and to benefit our workforce, who, as we have just outlined, do fantastic work in our hospitals and communities. Importantly, it will also enable us to invest, as the Deputy outlined, in future health infrastructure requirements that will be needed, particularly in areas of demand and growth. The Deputy attended the opening of an expansion of Portlaoise hospital recently. There has been significant investment there to date, recognising the demand and the need that is there. The hospital also saw an increase in the number of staff, with an increase in the region of 5.8%. That is a recognition, which the Minister for Health has reflected, of the demand and requirements that are there, as well as the demand and need for us to plan for the future beyond current capacity. That is why there is still a projected 48-bed wing being invested in, which we hope to open soon. There is a clear plan on the part of both the HSE and the Minister for Health to make sure that investment is put in where there are demands in certain hospitals and regions. In the budget I outlined, there is significant investment on both the current and the capital side, as well as plans to go even further and do even more. We have unbelievably dedicated healthcare professionals in this country and it is the job of the Minister of Health and the Government to make sure they have the resources to support the people in our communities and hospitals. They must also ensure we plan for the future and look beyond current requirements and needs. As I outlined, when it comes to Portlaoise hospital, that is exactly what the Minister is doing. More broadly and generally, there is a clear commitment to do even more, to expand further and to invest in what is required for the future.

I thank the Minister for her reply on behalf of the Taoiseach. Certainly, I will be one of the last people to argue about the overall budget for health. The more that goes into it, the better. However, what comes out the other end – the Minister for Health will be interested in this too - in terms of productivity and how the health service is run is important in order to get value for money. There is no doubt that there are committed staff. I see the commitment of staff in Abbeyleix, Mountmellick and Portlaoise and the great work they do on a weekly basis. They do excellent work. What I am asking for is a plan for that new 48-bed wing in Portlaoise. The Department of local government are saying the population has to increase by one third by 2034, but the population of Laois is after going from 60,000 just a short few years ago to nearly 100,000. The next census will show a population of 100,000 in Laois. That is the problem. The growth of another one third on top of that will put a huge burden on services. I can go on about schools and everything else but the critical thing at the moment is hospital care. Portlaoise hospital is under severe pressure. Patients are waiting to get into the accident and emergency department and the managers cannot do anything about it because they are trying to move patients out the other end as quickly as they can. The problem is sheer bed capacity. I am trying to urge the Minister, Deputy McEntee, and the Minister for Health, Deputy MacNeill, who is sitting beside her, to prioritise this. When the Minister is down-----

-----she should visit St. Anne's ward and give the okay for the day care centre in Abbeyleix.

I reassure the Deputy and reaffirm that there is funding and that work is under way for the 48 beds in Portlaoise, recognising the demand that is there. Over the last number of years, additional capacity has been provided across the whole health system. A total of 1,493 new acute inpatient beds have been opened since the end of 2020. Eighty-eight critical care beds and 396 community beds have also been opened. It is not just about adding more, however. We must ensure we get as much productivity out of the investment that is going in now. Emergency department attendances were up 7.2%, and by 9.8% among people aged over 75. Outpatient activity was also up 5.3%. Day cases and inpatient activity increased by 2.9% and 2.3%, respectively. The patients themselves are not looking at these figures but at the productivity, care and response they receive. What we know is that we have an excellent team of healthcare professionals who are considering not just what additional resources we can put in but also how we can create greater efficiencies, whether it is in rostering, expanding evening and weekend services, or utilising theatres, clinics and diagnostics in a different way. All of these are areas of focus and priority for us, and we need to continue that investment and focus.

Others have found this issue only in the last fortnight but I have been asking about it since March. On 5 March, I asked the Tánaiste for the date on which the Government approved the dismissal of Mr. John Barrett, executive director of human resources in An Garda Síochána. That was seven months ago but I got no answer. I have written every month to various Ministers, including the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Tánaiste and the Taoiseach, and also to former Ministers who held Cabinet positions during the time in question. One reply came back from a former Minister who confirmed to me that, to his knowledge, no memo ever went to Cabinet. The Department of the Taoiseach seems to agree. Under a freedom of information, FOI, request, I learned that all 19 documents received contained no memo to Cabinet. A second search confirmed in writing that no memo to Cabinet exists, and that there is no decision or date. However, what does exist is a briefing note from the private office of the Minister, Deputy McEntee. It records that she dismissed Mr. Barrett on the recommendation of Garda Commissioner Drew Harris – a Commissioner with no power to recommend it and a Minister with no constitutional power to do so. That is a breach of the Constitution. Whether the Government wishes to admit that or not, we are now in a state of constitutional crisis. As this House knows, this is not a one-off incident. The Minister has a precedent of overstepping her role and trampling upon this Constitution to protect others.

A Leas-Cheann Comhairle-----

When Detective Superintendent-----

That was not a question.

Could we stop the clock, please?

That was not a question. Come on, a Leas-Cheann Comhairle. Be fair now.

That was not a question.

That was not a question.

I have now lost at least 15 seconds, so can we put it back on the clock, please?

Detective Superintendent Brian O'Reilly made a protected disclosure criticising the Garda Commissioner. The Minister sent it back to that same Commissioner and Mr. O'Reilly’s identity with it. Is the Minister aware that breaching the confidentiality of a whistleblower's identity is a criminal offence under section 14A of the Protected Disclosures Act and carries with it a two-year prison sentence? As to the cover-up, and as the Government knows from the correspondence regarding Mr. Barrett, the disciplinary complaint made against Mr. Barrett never existed in the first place. Let that sink in in this House. The complaint never existed in the first place. That information was kept from the investigation and from the courts. On 17 September, the Minister told this House that she had adhered to the law and had followed the legislation. I ask her now to correct the record because, to my mind, she has not adhered to the legislation. Every Minister who has received a letter from me and decided to stay silent should note that this silence is entirely Government complicity. I wish to put just two simple questions to the Minister that require just a simple answer. Can she name the law under which she dismissed Mr. John Barrett, and will she give the House the date that the Government and Cabinet approved it?

I thank the Deputy. He is referring to quite a number of different things in his question. I am not sure whether some of it was questions or accusations. He is well aware that there have been certain issues raised by certain individuals with certain Departments for many years now, well before I or many other people he referenced already in this House were ever in the Department. They have been subject to and have undergone many different processes and procedures and have been dealt with or responded to. The Deputy is very well aware of that, but he can stand up and make claims and accusations. The Deputy has also made another claim that has been repeated in this House. I want to clarify for the record of the House, as he has asked, particularly in relation to Mr. O'Reilly. I say this because this is a particular case where the individual has asked for clarity and for a response. I have also sought legal advice as to what I can or cannot say because I stand by my original remarks that I have adhered to the legislation, including the protected disclosures legislation, and that I have at all times responded to any protected disclosure that was provided to me as Minister for Justice, or indeed at any stage, with the focus of making sure that any person who makes a protected disclosure is protected but also that the integrity is upheld. I am not going to discuss any details but I am going to outline one or two key points that I think are important. On 20 September 2023, I received a protected disclosure from the solicitor representing Mr. O'Reilly, which the Deputy outlined. On the same day, the solicitor representing Mr. O'Reilly sent an even more detailed outline of the same protected disclosure directly to the Garda Commissioner. Just to be clear, any suggestion that I have exposed or that my actions have prejudiced the person in question is simply not correct because, on the same day that I received a lesser version or outline of the details of the protected disclosure, the solicitor representing the person in question sent the protected disclosure directly to the Garda Commissioner. What I then undertook was a process that I should have undertaken, and that was to send it directly to the Office of the Protected Disclosures Commissioner for consideration. The process ensued. Just to be clear on any other suggestions that have been made in this House, there was a very clear process that has to be adhered to when undertaking and responding to a protected disclosure. At all times, I have followed that procedure. At all times, I have followed the law and the process. Where any protected disclosure has been sent directly to An Garda Síochána, it has been sent directly to the head of the protected disclosures unit, where I would expect it, as any other person would, to be treated with the utmost confidentiality. To repeat and to be clear, the protected disclosure that was sent to me was sent directly to the Garda Commissioner from day one.

I thank the Minister for her reply, but she did not answer the two straight questions I asked her, which were to name the law under which she dismissed Mr. John Barrett and to give this House the date of the approval by the Cabinet. The Minister cannot name that law because the law does not exist. There is none. I will give the Minister the Civil Service Regulation Act 1956, which refers to the powers of the Government in this area. Article 28 of the Constitution states the Government acts collectively. The key word in this is "collectively". There was no memo and no decision. The Minister breached both. Whether she did that deliberately or through ignorance, or for some other reason that this House has yet to discover, the results are the same: a whistleblower's life destroyed, John Barrett's life destroyed, a constitutional breach and an entire Government covering up what was behind it. After Maurice McCabe, this State promised again and again that this would never happen again but on the Minister's watch and through her hands, it has happened again and again. The Minister did not, or says she did not, need the Cabinet to end the career of a senior civil servant, but she does not need the Cabinet to end her own career. I seriously believe she should contemplate resigning as Minister and as a Member of this House.

This is outrageous. He is factually wrong in everything he said. It is outrageous.

I think I have answered the question. The Deputy is referring to quite a number of different cases, as he and others have over the last while, much of which came to the fore before I even entered the Departments in question. As the Deputy is well aware, there are many of these issues that have already been addressed and gone through fair and due process. They were responded to directly by the relevant Department at the time. The Deputy can make his accusations in here. I am being very clear and, in fact, I have clarified a point that he and others have insisted on making without any basis, without any fact, simply because he can. I am clarifying and have made very clear that, with every single protected disclosure that I have received, I have adhered to the legislation. I have responded to advice provided to me and, at all times, as we all should, I have acted and we have acted to make sure the person making the protected disclosure is protected, that the integrity of the process is protected and that those who are subject to it are protected, but also that, where we need to make changes, that can happen. I introduced significant reforms during my time as Minister for Justice. Later this year, there will be an opportunity for any person who wishes to involve themselves in the review and reform of the protected disclosures process. That review will take place later on this year.