IF a junior office boy had handled the tea money in as cavalier a manner as the Department of Justice treated communications relating to the delisting of Judge Dominic Lynch, he would be sacked, says a Church of Ireland Gazette editorial.
The Government went to considerable trouble and expense to prove the doctrine of Cabinet confidentiality was enjoined by the Constitution. That was to prevent proper investigation of the beef scandal.
"It is a pity that no one in the political establishment has shown equal keenness to uphold the doctrine of individual ministerial responsibility in the scandal involving the delisting of a judge in the Special Criminal Court.
"The whole shabby affair, from the failure to implement a Government decision at the beginning of August acceding to Judge Dominic Lynch's request to be removed from the panel of judges, to the panicky attempts by Ministers, the coalition partners and senior civil servants three months later to shift the blame for obvious incompetence and bungling has been an unedifying lesson in the limitations of democracy.
"Mrs Owen, as a member of the Dublin team involved in the peace discussions, has a high profile in some of the most important areas of policy. She has been gravely compromised by the Judge Lynch affair, as far as her authority is concerned. Mr Bruton should have moved her.
"The concept of ministerial responsibility is inextricably linked to accountability and public confidence. Both have been violated by using the Dail majority and the Labour Party's assessment of its electoral strategy to avoid the right decision," the editorial says.