Dail deputies and senators have been told that the reports on the Sheedy affair are still incomplete and that they must be patient in their demands for information on the matter.
However, Opposition members of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Equality and Women's Rights yesterday questioned the delay and rejected what they said was the impression given through the leaking of material to the media that the affair was "harmless".
The Fianna Fail chairman of the committee, Mr Eoin Ryan, told members yesterday that the Department of Justice report was almost complete. "The Minister has said that when the report is complete it will be published, and so has the Chief Justice. I think we just have to be patient."
Fine Gael's justice spokesman, Mr Jim Higgins TD, said that a report of the affair published in the Sunday Times at the weekend had presented the entire episode as "something almost harmless". If it was so harmless, he asked, why did the Director of Public Prosecutions go to the High Court seeking to have the decision reversed and why did the defence counsel involved then "raise the white flag"?
Labour's deputy leader, Mr Brendan Howlin, asked how reports of what had been said to the Chief Justice during his inquiry could be published in the media although the committee did not have access to this information. "I find it objectionable that a version of the facts is now in the public domain, being debated. There is a degree of conditioning going on and that is quite wrong."
Mr Sean Ardagh TD (Fianna Fail) said he did not believe the report of what Mr Justice O'Flaherty had told the Chief Justice had emanated from information supplied by the Chief Justice or his staff. He also said that the delay in publication of the facts was not the fault of the Minister, as the report had not yet been completed by the Chief Justice. "We should wait until the Minister has all the reports", he said. "He has stated that as soon as he has these reports he will report to the Dail."