Questions of legal representation at the forthcoming Morris tribunal into alleged corruption by members of the Garda in Donegal could only be decided by the tribunal itself and were not an issue for the Department of Justice, a Government spokesman has said.
This follows a joint statement by six families, who claim to have been the victims of Garda malpractice, that they have instructed their lawyers not to seek representation at the tribunal because they could not afford to participate and because the terms of reference were "unsatisfactory".
A spokesman at the Department of Justice said yesterday that the terms of reference were a matter for the Oireachtas.
"The Oireachtas has decided the terms of reference, and the question of legal representation at the tribunal is a matter for the tribunal itself, which will be formally established by the Minister this week," the spokesman said.
Fine Gael has called on the Minister for Justice to meet the families' lawyers "to resolve the obvious difficulties that have now arisen" and has criticised Mr O'Donoghue for refusing to accept the party's amendments to the terms of reference.
Labour has also demanded an "immediate response" from Mr O'Donoghue and said the terms of reference were rushed through the Dáil before Easter "without any real consultation with those principally affected".