External inquiry into emails on McCabe
AN external inquiry is to be carried out into how key emails around the treatment of Garda whistleblower Maurice McCabe were not sent to the Charleton Tribunal.
Leo Varadkar promised to hold senior civil servants in the Department of Justice to account as he also appeared to rebuke Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, saying that if questions had originally been answered properly, Frances Fitzgerald would not have had to resign as Tánaiste.
The Taoiseach delivered a scathing criticism of what had taken place when he told the Dáil: ‘It is a matter of deep regret to me that he did not actually see that document for another week, when I saw it. Perhaps if he had seen it, we would be in a different situation today’ he said.
‘I will be holding the department and its senior officials to account to ensure that neither I nor any minister or any member of the Dáil is ever put in that position again.’ Before Mr Flanagan made a statement to the Dáil on his role in the matter, Mr Varadkar told the house that he would make a statement ‘to apologise for the failure of his department to answer questions fully in recent weeks, and to offer further assurance that questions which have not yet been answered will be answered in full and that, in future, he will ensure, as will his secretary general, that questions are properly answered.’
‘I certainly am not in any way happy about how the last couple of weeks have played out. We did not have to end up in the situation we are in today.
‘Had questions been answered properly and in full, I certainly would not have had to come into the house on two occasions and correct what I had said. Second, had all the questions been answered and the emails found and put into the public domain seven or ten days ago, I do not think it would have been necessary for the Tánaiste to tender her resignation.’
He said that it was ‘a sorry state of affairs that has occurred’.
The Taoiseach warned: ‘I never want to be put in that position again.’
Mr Varadkar confirmed that he is appointing an external group to find out why the key emails released on Monday night – which revealed further contacts to Ms Fitzgerald about the then-Garda commissioner’s ‘aggressive’ legal approach against Mr McCabe – were only uncovered in recent days and were never sent to the Charleton Tribunal.
He said he was open to suggestions on who should review the situation but said that it was normally the secretary general of another department.
Furthermore, TDs from all parties would be given an opportunity to question senior civil servants in the Department of Justice. A ‘hotline’ will also be set up to deal with queries from politicians who are dissatisfied with answers they are given.
A ‘change and implementation group’ is to review the culture in the Department of Justice and ‘make recommendations for change, particularly in light of the evidence of a continued secretive culture’.
The group will also ‘examine the relationship between the department and the Garda to ensure that the relationship is appropriately structured… and to ensure accountability and better performance.’
Mr Varadkar has promised that any parliamentary questions already lodged in relation to Mr McCabe would be fully answered. It followed strong criticism from all opposition parties that information was emerging in dripfeed fashion.
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said: ‘Every correction of the Dáil record, every non-answer… [had] only deepened suspicions and anxiety’ in opposition TDs’.