The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, has said he told Ms Justice Laffoy six weeks ago of his plan to hold a further review of the work of the child abuse commission, and that she gave no indication of unhappiness about this.
Speaking to reporters yesterday after the Cabinet discussed Ms Justice Laffoy's surprise decision to resign as chair of the commission, Mr Dempsey said he had consulted with the judge six to eight weeks ago about his intentions to widen the review of the commission that was already under way.
"We had a couple of meetings with the Attorney General [and Ms Justice Laffoy] and the last meeting I had was six to eight weeks ago," he said.
"I didn't get any indication from her that she was unhappy with what we were planning."
He said she did have some reservations, which the commission set out in its statement on Tuesday. These included her view that it would not be wise for the commission's investigation committee to continue in its present format while the review was under way.
Ms Justice Laffoy announced her decision to resign on Tuesday within hours of the Minister's statement on radio that he had ordered a further review of the commission's investigation committee.
The Government had already announced last December that it was reviewing the work of the commission on the grounds that it could otherwise take 11 years to complete its work.
The judge's resignation letter contains strong criticism of the Department of Education, stating that its actions and slowness in delivering documents have frustrated and slowed the commission's work.
However, Mr Dempsey did not respond yesterday when it was put to him that the judge felt she had been frustrated in her work by the Department of Education. "Let Judge Laffoy speak for herself," he said.
Asked if he was blameless in the departure of Ms Justice Laffoy he said: "Judge Laffoy will have to speak for herself in relation to this. My concern is to ensure that the departure of Judge Laffoy does not interrupt the work and the review we want to carry out. And that we can get to an end to the investigation pretty quick.
"At the moment, it looks as if it would continue for eight to eleven years and it would cost taxpayers €100 million."
When it was put to him that the judge's letter accuses the Department of Education of failing to co-operate, he said: "I don't know the source of your information on that. If Justice Laffoy says that, then we will deal with that. At the moment the letter will be dealt with by the Government over a period of time."
Defending the withholding of the letter from publication, he said it would be released "in due course when the Government have considered it and we have prepared a response to it. The Justice deserves the consideration by the Government before we respond to her letter."
He suggested this consideration by the Government could take a week.
He insisted that during his time as Minister, his Department had tried to co-operate fully with the commission.
"The Department of Education at all times since I became Minister for Education has attempted to co-operate absolutely totally and fully. They were instructed to do that and they have tried to do that."
He acknowledged that the delivery of documents to the inquiry by his Department had been slow, but suggested this was due to the format in which the inquiry had insisted on receiving them.
He said that apart from the difficulties over the obtaining of documents, the Laffoy Commission had faced issues such as the lapse of time since the abuse took place and the constitutional right of accused persons to protect their good name.
These problems meant that the investigation could take eight to eleven years "and at the end of that we still had no certainty that we were going to be able to publish the report naming names.
"So that part of the investigating committee needed to be reviewed and we will do that review and we will say how we are going to handle those difficulties."
He added: "The investigation committee in some format, following a review, will continue. The compensation will continue to be paid through the Redress Board as it is at the moment, and the confidential committee will continue its work.
"This Government has shown its commitment to the victims of abuse and it will continue to show that into the future."