Why didn’t Flanagan tell Leo of email?

WHILE much of the political focus centred on the fate of the Tánaiste yesterday, questions have been raised about the role the current Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan played in the growing crisis.

It emerged yesterday that he knew about the email a week before Leo Varadkar was told, and days before Frances Fitzgerald was reminded about it.

He was told about it in a phone call with his secretary general, who not only alerted him to the fact it had been found – but also told him that he would be retiring from his role as a senior civil servant in the department. Mr Flanagan said yesterday: ‘I became aware of a document that subsequently transpired to be this email early last week, on Monday the 13th. I was speaking to the secretary general. He informed me of his intention to retire early after 40 years.

‘In passing, he mentioned that there was a document that had come to hand. I immediately said that this document should be sent to the tribunal of inquiry for dealing with by Judge Charleton.’

When asked if he brought this to the attention of the Taoiseach, he said: ‘I felt that the tribunal of inquiry was the best place to send this document. It is an issue of some concern to the tribunal. I was keen that it be transmitted to the tribunal at the earliest opportunity.’

He said the advice on the email was that Ms Fitzgerald or any minister should not interfere.

On his own position he said: ‘These issues all took place before my time. I said from my first day that anyone with any information pertaining to the tribunal should give that information to the tribunal.’

Mr Flanagan is coming under pressure to explain why he did not tell the Taoiseach about the email, especially since Mr Varadkar was this week forced to correct the record of the Dáil.

The day after being told of the email, on Monday last week, Mr Flanagan sat beside the Taoiseach who told opposition parties: ‘I spoke to the Tánaiste yesterday. She is currently in the United Arab Emirates on a trade mission. She confirmed to me that she had no hand, act or part in forming the former commissioner’s legal strategy, nor did she have any prior knowledge of the legal strategy the former commissioner’s team pursued.

‘She found out about it after the fact, but around the time it was in the public domain when everyone else knew about it as well. The current Minister for Justice and Equality was not a Minister in the Department at the time and he also had no hand, act or part in, or prior knowledge of, the legal strategy being pursued by the former Commissioner’s legal team.’

The following day, the issue provoked an outburst from Mr Flanagan when it was brought up again in the Dáil, and he accused Alan Kelly of the Labour Party the Labour Party of a smear campaign.

He said: ‘There are matters that are germane to the tribunal, that is the place for them. I ask Deputy Kelly to desist from engaging in a smear campaign against me both personally and professionally. I have made it quite clear that I had no hand, act or part in this.’

He knew about it a week before Leo