Self-inflicted wounds have made Coalition vulnerable

The reputation of the Coalition has taken a pounding as a result of the way it has handled the variety of controversies emanating from the Garda. The key question is whether permanent damage has been inflicted.

Since the emergence of the alleged bugging of the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission (Gsoc) at the beginning of February, the Government has been on the back foot from one week to the next.

The latest controversy involving the recording of phone calls in and out of Garda stations for more than two decades, which emerged out of the blue after Tuesday’s Cabinet meeting, and has left Government TDs wondering if the saga will ever end.

Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has rarely been out of the eye of the storm and he has come to the fore yet again in the latest controversy to beset the Government with the question of why he only found out about the problem after the Attorney General and the Taoiseach.

There was a growing sense of exasperation in the ranks of Government TDs in Leinster House yesterday at the propensity of Shatter to become embroiled in one controversy after another.

Fine Gael and Labour TDs heaved a sigh of relief when the Minister stood up in the Dáil and clearly and unequivocally corrected his earlier assertion in the House that the whistleblowers had not co-operated with the Garda investigations that took place into their claims. “I acknowledge that this statement was incorrect. It was never my intention to mislead the House and I believe it is appropriate that I apologise to both and withdraw the statements made,” he said.

Shatter then delivered a comprehensive account of his stewardship as far as the issue of penalty points was concerned, pointing out that he had instigated the three reports into the imposition of penalty points that identified serious weaknesses in the system.

He also pointedly referred to the failure of the previous government to address deficiencies in the system.

This is what Government TDs find most frustrating about the position they now find themselves in. “Almost all of the alleged malpractice that has been in the media for the past couple of months happened under Fianna Fáil’s watch, yet we are getting it in the neck. It’s our own fault for allowing that to happen and Shatter’s overbearing attitude has compounded the problem,” said one Government TD.

More experienced Fine Gael and Labour TDs recalled the campaign against Nora Owen when she was minister for justice and was targeted for sustained attack by the then Fianna Fáil spokesman on justice John O’Donoghue.

The Opposition has gone after Shatter in a similar personalised fashion but it is his response that has really got him into trouble. While he is formidable in debate, his propensity to overstate his case brought trouble on himself even when he was winning the argument.

His apology has defused the whistleblower issue, for the present at least, but questions still remain about why he was not made aware of the Garda phone recording issue well before last Monday.

A letter from former Garda commissioner Martin Callinan alerted the secretary general of the Department of Justice to the problem on March 10th. Mr Shatter confirmed this in the Dáil yesterday.

“Unfortunately, this letter was not furnished to me by my officials until approximately 12.40 pm yesterday [Tuesday] and I did not have an opportunity to read and consider it until some time later,” he added.

While the Minister was out of the country on an official visit to Mexico for St Patrick's Day for much of the intervening period, his political opponents were not prepared to accept his explanation.

Green Party leader Eamon Ryan asked why the secretary general of the department failed to abide by a requirement of section 41 of the Garda Síochána Act 2005 and immediately forward the letter from the then Garda commissioner to the Minister.

There are still a lot of questions about how the Government came by the information that the practice of recording calls to and from Garda stations came to the attention of the Government.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny told the Dáil yesterday he was made aware of it in the course of a routine telephone conversation with Attorney General Máire Whelan last Sunday. After that call, she met him in person because the information was so sensitive.

Opposition TDs were yesterday seeking answers to when the Attorney General first became aware of the issue and why she left it until last Sunday to inform the Taoiseach.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin described the timing of the development as “extremely odd”, with the implication that it was simply a cover for getting the whistleblower saga and Shatter’s problems off the political agenda.

If it is all a political ploy, as some of the Government’s opponents believe, that will inevitably be exposed by the commission of inquiry which will shortly be set up. The likelihood of the Government adopting such a cynical and politically dangerous ploy is extremely unlikely, given that its exposure would probably spell the end of the Coalition.