A REPLY to a question on the role of the Attorney General in the Department of Justice controversy was described by Mr Michael McDowell (PD, Dublin South East) as "evasive." The reply was given by the Minister of State at the Department of the Taoiseach, Mr Donal Carey, in the absence of Mr Bruton.

Mr Carey said that the Attorney General had read a newspaper reference to Judge Dominic Lynch sitting on the Special Criminal Court at the end of last October. No one had brought the matter to his attention.

On October 29th, there was a court report in The Irish Times of proceedings in the Special Criminal Court on the previous day in which Judge Lynch was mentioned. "The Attorney General thinks it is likely that this was the newspaper report in which he saw the reference to Judge Lynch. The Attorney cannot say when he may have read the report."

Mr McDowell suggested that the Attorney General should have been aware immediately of the significance of the newspaper item. "It was telling him that the worst calamity that he had foreseen a month earlier had taken place."

Mr McDowell said that it was not good enough to come into the House and say that the Attorney General did not know when he had read the report.

Mr Carey said that the Attorney General had not been sure as to the correctness of the newspaper report. "I do not think there is any effort on the Attorney General's part to slide out of anything. He has been upfront."