Whisleblower controversy amplifies differences between Coalition parties

A renewed bout of internecine squabbling within the Government over Garda matters intensified yesterday as Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore called on Minister for Justice Alan Shatter to withdraw assertions he made in the Dáil about Sgt Maurice McCabe, one of two whistleblowers in the penalty points affair.

With relations in the Coalition already strained over the Labour-led clamour for Garda Commissioner Martin Callinan to withdraw his "disgusting" comment about the whistleblowers, Gilmore was unambiguous in his view that Shatter must also step back from his own remarks.

Ahead of today's Cabinet meeting this served only to amplify differences between the parties. With the singular exception of Minister for Transport Leo Varadkar, there is no great difficulty in Fine Gael with Callinan's remarks.

Thus Gilmore added fuel to the flames. Shatter has said mistakes were made on all sides. The Minister for Justice has questioned why McCabe was not interviewed by the internal Garda inquiry into penalty points but cannot see how McCabe could be described as co-operating with the investigation.

Difficult
With action now sought by Labour on two separate fronts, Taoiseach Enda Kenny finds himself with a tricky "double-ask" on his hands. This is not quite an impossibility, although it makes things a great deal more difficult politically. In the give-and-take of Coalition relations, the Taoiseach would have to do more giving than taking.

But there is no sign of that. On the contrary, the Department of Justice said last night that Labour raised no issue with Shatter’s last Dáil intervention on the matter. Indeed it said certain unnamed Labour Ministers “made supportive comments” to Shatter after his speech. A climbdown in the making? No.

This is to say nothing at all of Labour’s demands for oversight of the Garda to be moved under the ambit of an independent policing body. If that is not quite in keeping with the Fine Gael world view, there are signs that the larger party is warming to the notion. The reality, however, is that this particular question is for settlement later.

What Kenny needs to do first is settle the immediate source of tension. True, it may not be beyond the wit of the Cabinet and its advisers to find a way out today. At the same time, it all serves to underline the unforgiving realpolitik now at work in the Coalition.

Serious questions
For one thing, serious questions over the wider operation and management of the Garda will not go away. This will continue to be the case no matter what happens today, for official inquiries continue into bugging claims at the Garda Ombudsman and separate allegations from McCabe.

Second, Labour obviously sees political purchase in this matter at a time when any leeway in economic debate in the Coalition is severely curtailed. The opposite is the case within Fine Gael. Notwithstanding the investigations under way, Shatter’s support for the Garda has been unstinting and reflects Fine Gael’s instinctive political posture on such matters.

Third, the unfolding drama comes ahead of local and European elections in May which mark the biggest test of public opinion since Kenny and Gilmore took office three years ago. If voters are not in election mode yet, politicians are . With Labour the more exposed of the two Coalition parties, it is in need of something to demonstrate its potency in office.

Hence we have the extraordinary spectacle of Labour Ministers merrily defying Kenny’s entreaty to Government members to keep their views to the Cabinet room.

The Tánaiste duly denied any defiance of the Taoiseach’s authority but the record here is clear. While Gilmore is as adept as any politician at providing non-answers to questions, his argument yesterday was that “answers have to be given” when issues are in the public domain.

On the Fine Gael side there is no small effort to dismiss the whole imbroglio as overdone. Yet this is no minor matter. We now know that Kenny called Varadkar in yesterday for a chat. They were hardly discussing the weather. It was Varadkar’s intervention last week which reignited the controversy.