After a week of the Taoiseach dithering and scrambling for cover, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald has done the honourable thing. She has taken the honourable course and finally resigned as Tánaiste. We have had a week of the Taoiseach and the leader of Fianna Fáil desperately conniving to sidestep or avoid genuine accountability. Today, at last, we now have the right outcome but it should not have taken this long.

It was clear some time ago that Deputy Frances Fitzgerald had to go not for fear of an election, but because of her grave failures as the Minister for Justice and Equality. The Taoiseach failed to act decisively and to take the appropriate action. He thought that he could brazen this out and instead of acting as a Taoiseach should, he played a game of bluff and a game of political poker with his partner, Deputy Micheál Martin.

Sinn Féin moved its motion of no confidence in Deputy Frances Fitzgerald because we wanted her held to account for her failure to challenge the attempts by very powerful agencies of this State to smear and destroy Maurice McCabe. We wanted her and the system held to account for the disingenuous manoeuvrings which led to both her and the Taoiseach misleading the Dáil repeatedly. Make no mistake, if Sinn Féin had not moved its motion, the Taoiseach and the Fianna Fáil leader would have been quite happy to maintain the fiction that political accountability could be achieved in some other way. Deputy Micheál Martin was happy to maintain this fiction right up until last night when it became undeniable that the Tánaiste's position was completely untenable. It is a very alarming reflection on the Taoiseach that he continued to support this fiction up until a couple of hours ago.

There are now serious questions over the Taoiseach's judgment. It is clear that his handling of this issue turned a scandal into a political crisis and then into an absolute shambles of governance. The Taoiseach repeatedly misled the Dáil and supported a Minister who had clearly failed in her duties. The Taoiseach stood by those who had turned a blind eye to the smearing of Maurice McCabe when the Taoiseach should have held them to account. The Taoiseach put the interests of Fine Gael above all else. This was the first real test of the Taoiseach's leadership and he has failed it in a most spectacular fashion.

Let us be clear - the Tánaiste is gone but this debacle is not over, not by a long shot. For all the lip service the Taoiseach has paid to the importance of the Charleton tribunal, the Department of Justice and Equality withheld relevant documents from the tribunal. That is a breach of the law. I want to know what the Taoiseach proposes to do about that. The Taoiseach told us that the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Charles Flanagan, will apologise for not answering parliamentary questions. Will the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, who sat beside the Taoiseach and allowed him to mislead the Dáil, explain also to the House how he allowed that to happen?

Hear, hear.

I thank the Deputy. I assure the Deputy that neither I nor anyone on this side of the House has any fear of genuine accountability.

Every time I come to the House, I act in good faith and tell the truth as I believe it to be. I put on the record the facts as they are given to me. If Members of the Deputy's party down the years and today acted with that level of standard, honesty and truth, we would be living in a much better country than we are at present. Indeed, Deputy McDonald misled the Dáil herself on Thursday in her interaction with the former Tánaiste when she claimed that some of the emails were sent to or from gardaí. Of course, none of these emails involved any gardaí. They were emails sent between officials, advisers and politicians. The Deputy has yet to correct the record in the context of the error she made on Thursday. Even though she clearly did not know all the facts on Thursday last - we know from the record that she did not know all of the facts-----

She is not part of the club.

-----it did not stop her putting down a motion of confidence in the Tánaiste.

The Government hid the facts from us.

Silence.

That is because for Deputy McDonald and the Sinn Féin Party this was never about getting to the truth or ensuring fair play; it was just about getting ahead and scoring points. Now, they are just trying to figure out on whom they can inflict damage next.

Blame Sinn Féin again.

That is not the way honourable parties and politicians should operate.

Tell us another porky.

Please, Deputies.

The allegations that have been made against Deputy Fitzgerald by Deputy McDonald are now matters for the tribunal. I hope that, after this episode, Members on all sides of the House will at least allow the tribunal to do its work and hear evidence in the calm, judicious way in which tribunals operate and to give us the full facts. It will be interesting to see what the outcome of that tribunal is.

As to Deputy McDonald's question about why certain emails were not provided to the Charleton tribunal under discovery, I do not know the answer. That is why I have ordered an external investigation to try to find out why the emails were not provided to the tribunal when they should have been. I remind the Deputy and the House that the only reason those emails came to light was that I ordered a trawl of emails and documents last week because I was not confident or satisfied that the Department had released all of the information it had because I had to come in here on two occasions and correct the record.

It was because of questions asked here.

I never want to be put in that position again. The House can be sure I will be holding the Department and its senior officials to account to ensure that neither I nor any Minister or Member of the Dáil will ever be put in that position again.