ANALYSIS:The Green TD made a foolish mistake that compromised his position as a minister, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
THE CIRCUMSTANCES surrounding Trevor Sargent’s resignation yesterday as minister of state for food came like another bolt from the blue as Leinster House was plunged into turmoil for the third week in a row.
Following so hard on the heels of Willie O’Dea’s forced resignation last Thursday, the departure of the Green Party minister and former party leader raised further questions about how long the Coalition can survive.
The only silver lining for the Greens was that Sargent had stepped down as party leader in June 2007 at the beginning of the Coalition’s term of office.
If he was still party leader and a Cabinet Minister his fall from grace could have proved fatal to the Government.
It was a remarkable coincidence that O’Dea and Sargent were both undone because they got embroiled in an inappropriate fashion with the country’s judicial system.
In both cases the circumstances of their intervention were more complex than their detractors would allow but, in each case, there was never any possible outcome other than resignation. How Sargent could have written to a garda asking her to drop a prosecution simply defies belief. Regardless of the circumstances of the case the utter inappropriateness of a TD, never mind a minister, seeking to influence a Garda investigation should have been as obvious to the minister as the nose on his face.
Back in 2002 when Bobby Molloy was forced to resign as a junior minister for writing to a judge with a plea of mitigation, none other than Sargent lectured him about the importance of the constitutional separation of the judiciary from the executive as he deplored the “the nature and extent of political representations”.
In that same debate, the then Green leader also said: “Any representation relating to a court case ought to be acknowledged with a warning about the need not to interfere in any way with due judicial process. It is shocking that this should occur after Deputy Molloy’s 37 years of experience as a TD and minister and this highlights that this warning cannot be repeated too often.”
Sadly for Sargent, he did not heed his own warning and made his baffling intervention in a Garda investigation. Regardless of the circumstances of the case, what the Green TD did was unlawful and that left him with no option but to resign.
In his short Dáil statement, Sargent explained the circumstances in which he had contacted the Garda about a constituent but he added: “I accept, however, that although my actions in contacting An Garda Síochána were not a criminal offence, under section 6 of the Prosecutions of Offences Act 1974 such a communication could be deemed not lawful. In this regard, I accept I made an error of judgment. Accordingly, I hereby tender my resignation forthwith as Minister of State for Food and Horticulture.”
Unlike O’Dea, Sargent did not try to brazen it out but took the appropriate action and resigned immediately.
For having the sense and decency not to put the Dáil through another unedifying spectacle, with personal abuse being bandied across the floor of the chamber, the Green TD deserves credit.
Like Molloy eight years ago, he acted with dignity and accepted the political consequences of making a foolish mistake that compromised his position as a minister, even though it did not reflect on his integrity.
Others like Phil Hogan and Hugh Coveney of Fine Gael took a similar approach in the past and hopefully Sargent’s approach should become the norm in political life in the future.
TDs on all sides of the Dáil accepted John Gormley’s assessment that Sargent has “brought a unique mix of ability and talent, decency and honesty to Irish public life”, but equally they were united in the view that he had no other option but to resign.
The decision to go quickly minimised the negative impact on the Coalition but it was the last thing a Government beset by problems on all sides needed at this stage.
The mysterious way in which not only the letters sent by Sargent but correspondence involving the Garda emerged into the public domain also fuelled conspiracy theories about Fianna Fáil score settling after the departure of O’Dea at Green Party insistence last week.
Labour’s justice spokesman Pat Rabbitte was quick to pounce. “The empire strikes back. It is far too much of a coincidence that this should come into the public domain so soon after the Greens had forced the resignation of a Fianna Fáil minister. You could only regard this as a coincidence if you believe in the tooth fairy.”
While the Opposition will naturally point to Fianna Fáil as the source of the leak, so far at least there is no evidence to support this theory.
It is arguable that the last thing the Fianna Fáil leadership wants at this stage is to take any action that could further destabilise the Coalition. If it was established that the damaging leak did come from Fianna Fáil, the coalition with the Greens would be over immediately.
While Sargent’s departure from office will not in itself cause significant damage, it could generate suspicions between the two parties that could have damaging long-term consequences and bring the Government’s life to a premature end.
Stephen Collins is Political Editor