The AG's office still has urgent questions to answer, writes Stephen Collins, Political Correspondent
The Government strategy to take the heat out of the controversy over the law on statutory rape was largely successful yesterday, even if serious questions remain about what went wrong in the Attorney General's office and doubts persist as to whether last week's emergency legislation will stand the test of time.
The Taoiseach came into the Dáil yesterday armed with a detailed response designed to defuse the expected questions from the Opposition leaders. The comprehensive nature of his replies, coupled with the leniency of the Leas Ceann Comhairle, Séamus Pattison, in allowing much longer questions and answers than usual, served to dampen the tone of the debate.
Mr Ahern announced a series of well-flagged measures involving new procedures in the Attorney General's office, the appointment of a special rapporteur for child protection, and an all-party committee to examine the whole area. The final and most controversial piece in the jigsaw involved the appointment of a senior civil servant to establish what went wrong with procedures that left the Attorney General, Rory Brady, ignorant of the storm that was about to break two weeks ago.
This was the issue that provoked most criticism from Enda Kenny and Pat Rabbitte. Both were adamant that a serving civil servant was not the appropriate person to conduct the inquiry into what went wrong and they insisted that it would have to be carried out by someone independent of government. The Labour leader suggested Kevin Murphy, the former ombudsman and before that the civil servant in charge of the public service.
The person selected by the Government is Eddie Sullivan, secretary general for public service management and development in the Department of Finance, the position occupied by Mr Murphy before he became ombudsman. Mr Rabbitte made the point that regardless of the qualities of Mr Sullivan, a serving official was not the right person for the job.
The Taoiseach, however, was having none of it. He said that the reporting procedures in the Attorney General's office, which were laid down after the Brendan Smyth controversy, were established by a three-man team of officials appointed by the rainbow government in 1995. If it was good enough for officials to devise the rules it was only right that an official should examine why they were not followed.
Mr Ahern gave a few broad hints that he knew exactly what had gone wrong in the AG's office and implied that it was not something that warranted a huge inquiry. He was adamant that the AG had not been informed about the pending constitutional case on statutory rape because of a communications problem in his office. The clear inference was that the problem involved a mistake by an official. "If a human error is made, a human error is made. I have no interest in jumping all over that," said the Taoiseach.
More to the point, he wanted to stop Mr Rabbitte and Mr Kenny jumping all over the Government. To achieve that end he stuck firmly to the line that an investigation by an senior official was the appropriate way to deal with the situation. There was little the Opposition leaders could do except bemoan the fact that an independent inquiry was not being put in place.
They also took issue with the Taoiseach on the question of an all-party committee. It was not clear from the announcement, or from Mr Ahern's subsequent responses, what kind of committee he has in mind. While the other aspects of his initiative were spelled out in some detail the likely terms of reference of the committee were left as vague as possible.
It appeared from Mr Ahern's response that he envisages the committee as looking into the whole are of child abuse, with the backup of an expert group provided by the Department of Justice. The Opposition, though, have been given no information about the committee or what it will be asked to look at and they suspect a plot to kick the whole issue out of the political arena until after the next election.
The question of a committee was raised during last Friday's emergency debate by the Minister for Justice, Michael McDowell, who said during exchanges with the Opposition that he would be happy to accept the idea that they should have a second look at the legislation on an all-party basis.
Labour is particularly keen to revisit the issue as the party's justice spokesman, Brendan Howlin, argued strongly during the debate that the law was deeply flawed, particularly in relation to the provision that made consensual sex involving teenagers under 17 a crime for boys but not for girls. Doubts about the constitutionality of this provision have been expressed by some leading lawyers and Mr Howlin wants it thrashed out by the committee.
During yesterday's Dáil exchanges both Mr Rabbitte and Mr Kenny hinted that their parties would not get involved in the all-party committee unless they were satisfied about the independent status of the investigation into the AG's office. Whether they will follow through on that will depend on the nature of the Government's response and on the precise form of committee being proposed by the Taoiseach. "We can't say how we will respond until we are told what kind of committee is being proposed," said a Labour spokesman.
The Government's priority at this stage is to get to the Dáil summer recess without suffering further serious damage to its credibility. Yesterday's response should help it along the way but, as always, it will be at the mercy of events.