PSNI information withholding
Conway-Walsh challenged Fianna Fáil over the PSNI withholding sensitive information from families affected across several counties. She pressed for Government accountability and said her party would not cover up collusion.
I want to address what has just been said by Senators on my left and their party leader about the non-disclosure of information by the PSNI. Does Fianna Fáil think it is okay for the PSNI to withhold vital, significant and sensitive information? That is my question for Deputy Micheál Martin. Is Fianna Fáil okay with that?
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We are talking Sinn Féin here.
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I do not want a debate between two parties. Will the Senator please address the Chair?
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I wish to ask a number of questions.
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I am not addressing Senator Noone.
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I know the Fianna Fáil Party has a confidence and supply arrangement with the Government. If the Fianna Fáil Party has full confidence in the PSNI, does it think it is okay that the PSNI has withheld vital significant information? It is not me who is saying that it is significant information; it is Dr. Michael Maguire, the police ombudsman. There are at least 20 families across seven counties who are impacted by that. Have representatives from Fianna Fáil spoken to these families?
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Have its representatives asked these families what they want?
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Have they total disregard for these families? That is the reason that last week we asked for the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Flanagan, to come to this House to tell Members what the Government was doing about this issue. Is the Government going to turn its back? If Fianna Fáil thinks it is okay to have no accountability, saying that is fine, and the computer was old, there was nothing to see, I am sorry. The Fianna Fáil Party is ignoring its own bedfellows in the North, the SDLP. The SDLP has even said that this should not be happening and that it needs to be stopped. Fianna Fáil needs to make up its mind. I cannot figure out how a political party in the South could not think it was wrong for a police force to withhold this vital information to prevent those families from having the ombudsman's report they have waited decades for. Those in the North could then say they had seen Dr. Maguire's report. However, Dr. Maguire had to come back and tell them that he did not have the information because the police withheld it from him. Does Fianna Fáil think that is okay? That is not okay with me. It is not okay with Sinn Féin and we will not stand over it.
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If the Fianna Fáil Senator wants to stand over it, stand four-square behind it. We are not standing over it and we will make no apologies for that. Trying to play party politics at the expense of these families is wrong. Perhaps one of the Fianna Fáil Senators would respond to me if he or she has spoken to the families in question because they are the people at the centre of this. Fianna Fáil might want to cover up the collusion that has gone on for decades but certainly we are not going to cover it up any longer.