Enda sticks by AG after criticism in report into Garda tapes

ENDA KENNY is sticking by his Attorney General after she was severely criticised in the interim Fennelly Report for failing to keep former justice minister Alan Shatter fully informed about the Garda tapes crisis.

Máire Whelan was also criticised for changes in her testimony and for an alarmist initial briefing to the Taoiseach on the matter; and the final report repeats these criticisms.

However, a spokesman for Mr Kenny told the Irish Mail on Sunday that he ‘absolutely’ had full confidence in Ms Whelan.

He said: ‘The fact that the recordings were found to have been both unlawful and unconstitutional is a clear endorsement of the AG’s original advice.

‘That no case is to be affected is to be welcomed.’

Embattled Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald also said she has ‘full confidence in the Attorney General’.

However, Mr Shatter claimed the report confirmed that the ‘Attorney General substantially overreacted and showed very poor judgment’.

He added: ’I believe that in any other European democracy the Attorney General’s position would have been untenable.’ In the wake of the AG’s initial response, the then Garda commissioner Martin Callinan resigned while Mr Shatter lost office some months later.

One Government source noted that the AG ‘might have been in a bit of a flap after the first disclosures, but who can blame her? Anything involving the gardaí or Alan Shatter that time put us in a flap’.

Significantly, the AG also has the confidence of Fine Gael’s Coalition partners in the Independent Alliance.