‘I missed significance of email at centre of row,’ admits Flanagan
JUSTICE Minister Charlie Flanagan admitted he “missed the significance” of the email at the centre of the controversy that brought the Government to the brink of collapse.
The under-fire minister told the Dáil last night that he was “shocked and, frankly, horrified” that documents in the possession of the Department of Justice had not been handed over to the Charleton tribunal.
He poured blame on officials in his department, saying it was “a major challenge at every step to obtain complete information in a timely manner, indeed, on a few occasions recently, information has been provided to me, to the Taoiseach, and then to this House, which has proven subsequently to be inaccurate”.
Explaining his role in the debacle which led to the downfall of ex-tánaiste Frances Fitzgerald, Mr Flanagan said he was alerted to the existence of correspondence on November 13.
In this correspondence, his predecessor was initially warned about a clash between legal teams for then-Garda commissioner Nóirín O’Sullivan and Sergeant Maurice McCabe.
Mr Flanagan said he was in his constituency when he received a phone call from the secretary general of the department, Noel Waters.
“He informed me that having reached 40 years’ service, he now intended to retire and he asked me to inform Cabinet the following morning,” Mr Flanagan told the Dáil.
“For me, this was unexpected and I was taken aback and began to worry. I was still digesting the news when reference was made to an email pertaining to the O’Higgins Commission and Sgt McCabe that had been discovered in the department.”
Mr Flanagan said he immediately told the official that the email should be sent to the Charleton tribunal, which is investigating claims of a smear campaign against Sgt McCabe.
“I simply missed the significance of the email, which I viewed as just another addition to the 230-plus documents already discovered to the tribunal from the department.”
It wasn’t until a week later, on November 20, that the minister saw the content of the email – by which time the Taoiseach had provided inaccurate information to the Dáil. Labour Party leader Brendan Howlin expressed surprise at the minister’s reaction to the phone call from the secretary general, saying most people would “connect” his retirement with the email.
Mr Flanagan replied: “Of course it has now transpired that this was an email of great significance.
“In the matter of hindsight had I known the full content of the email, had the email been sent to me, then the events of the last week might have been somewhat different.” The minister also apologised to Labour TD Alan Kelly for an angry outburst during a Dáil sitting last week during which he claimed Mr Kelly was engaged in a smear campaign against him.
“I had been told by some people in my constituency that deputy Kelly had made very negative comments about me in their presence,” Mr Flanagan said.
“I always considered deputy Kelly a good colleague both in parliament and in government and I confess that I was taken aback and offended when these allegations were made to me.
“I fully accept that I reacted badly and I apologise to deputy Kelly and to the House and withdraw my remarks.”
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin told the Dáil the current row “must be the nail in the coffin of the secrecy and silos in the Department of Justice”.
“Yes, there must be a fundamental change in the culture of that department, but Government must also take responsibility and take legitimate questioning by the Opposition, not as partisan grandstanding all the time.
“Over the past three weeks, the Government has taken too dismissive an attitude to Opposition members who raised very important and profound questions,” he said.
As part of the reforms being planned for Justice, TDs are to be given an opportunity to sit down face to face with the senior officials to ask questions.
A dedicated service or hotline will also be set up which TDs can contact if they are not satisfied with the advice they are getting.