asked the Minister for Justice the present position regarding the murder case (details supplied) in County Meath; the present stage of the investigation; and if he anticipates that charges will be made in the near future.

In accordance with the long established practice in this House, Ministers for Justice do not furnish reports about the progress of individual Garda investigations. It would not be practicable to furnish such reports, given the number and variety of such investigations and the inordinate amount of Garda time that would be taken up in the preparation of up-to-the-minute reports.

It is, of course, open to any person with a bona fide interest in a particular case to write to the Garda Síochána and ask for information privately.

Does the Minister agree that whatever our views may be about the sub judice rule it is highly undesirable that individual Deputies should ask questions of a tendentious kind, suggesting for starters that a murder occurred, which it may not have done, and suggesting that the Minister made a statement about the progress of investigations and the intention of the Garda to charge? It is highly undesirable and very wrong that this House——

The Deputy is making a statement.

I agree wholeheartedly with Deputy McDowell.