Sargent’s swift and graceful exit strikes a blow for the true republic

DOMINIC McGowan told Trevor Sargent that after seeing children tampering with a neighbourhood sign, he complained to the father of one of them, but he was head-butted and required hospitalisation as a result.

The offender, who is “well-known to the gardaí,” has since been sentenced to four months in jail for that assault, but McGowan was also charged with aggressive behaviour himself and fined €500 last week.

Unfortunately, Sargent went beyond what was proper in seeking to help his constituent. He essentially tried to prevent the law taking its course when he complained to the garda investigating the matter.

He wrote that he knew McGowan “to be a civic-minded person who has never been in trouble with the law before.” That, of course, was his judgment, but he then went on to take issue with both the judgment of the garda who had investigated the case and the prosecuting authorities for charging McGowan with aggressive behaviour.

“It was shocking for me to hear” that rather than being called to court to testify against the man who had assaulted him, McGowan was prosecuted for threatening behaviour. “It is a bizarre turn of events, to say the least, that as a result of investigation to date, a summons has been issued for a charge against the victim to appear at Balbriggan Court,” Sargent wrote to the investigating garda.

This was a naked attempt to interfere with the garda investigation. He wrote a covering letter to McGowan, enclosing a copy of his letter to the garda and expressed the hope of “getting the summons dropped. And if not, I will go further with the matter”.

Sargent obviously thought what was happening was a perversion of justice, but he had not investigated the matter. Instead, he was making the mistake of assuming he knew better than those who did investigate it. His effort to stop the gardaí attempting to enforce the law was therefore highly improper.

Subsequently there were allegations that the gardaí or Justice Minister Dermot Ahern leaked Sargent’s letter in order to embarrass the Greens. Ahern certainly did not distinguish himself during the O’Dea debacle last week when he sought to blame members of Fine Gael for his colleague’s misbehaviour, but their allegations against him in relation to the Sargent case would seem to have been equally reckless.

There was no reason to believe gardaí had access to the follow-up letter that Sargant wrote to McGowan enclosing his original letter to the garda. As both letters were leaked, it would seem those who blamed the gardaí and the minister were looking in the wrong direction. There were nevertheless positive aspects to the Sargent affair.

Willie O’Dea was totally at fault for his own irresponsible mistake, but he disingenuously tried to blame a journalist for supposedly misrepresenting him and a garda for supposedly misinforming him.

Sargent, on the other hand, admirably accepted his own responsibility. “I made an error of judgment,” he told the Dáil. “Accordingly I hereby tender my resignation forthwith as minister of state.”

He should also be applauded for giving his ministerial golden handshake of €47,000 to charity. Willie O’Dea has made no such announcement about his golden handshake of €98,000. It is an outrage that ministers forced out of office for misconduct should receive a payoff – amounting in O’Dea’s case to a multiple of the average industrial wage. It is no wonder our politics are dysfunctional.

The manner of Sargent’s departure was a pleasant change from the behaviour of so many Fianna Fáil ministers who have been forced to resign for misconduct. Most had to be dragged out not only figuratively kicking and screaming but also loudly protesting their innocence, thereby insulting people’s intelligence.

In the latest case it was encouraging to learn the gardaí did not bow to the political pressure. Many people may remember the Fianna Fáil love-in on the Late Late Show for the late Brian Lenihan 20 years ago this month, when Ronnie Drew joked about the garda who raided the pub in which Donogh O’Malley was drinking after hours.

“Would you like a large whiskey and a pint of stout,” O’Malley asked the garda, “or would you like a posting on an island somewhere between here and America.”

In recent years we have been witnessing the costly consequence of tolerating this kind of culture in our politics. There were a whole series of allegations of criminal misconduct against Charles Haughey, Ray Burke and Liam Lawlor, as well as the other politicians who were never charged with their criminal behaviour.

It seemed gardaí felt unable to investigate those matters. Was this tantamount to an admission of impotence, cowardice or incompetence? Instead of having the gardaí investigate dodgy politicians, we have had to fund endless tribunal hearings. A tribunal should only have been set up as a last resort to investigate something the gardaí were unable to handle. Despite the loud protestations of our republicanism, many people do not seem to appreciate what it means. The people are sovereign in a republic. All citizens should be recognised as equal, but politicians here have been according themselves special privileges denied to others.

If you make a representation on your own behalf to any government department, this is supposed to be dealt with in order. But if you get a politician to make representations on your behalf, that application goes to the top of the pile. This is an affront to republicanism.

It has promoted a gross form of clientelism which has bred bribery and corruption in recent years. Politicians are being elected for what they can do for people personally – usually their friends or political contributors – rather than for what they can do for society as a whole.

OF course, politicians should be allowed to make proper representations on behalf of their constituents. But all applications should be dealt with systematically, with no preferential treatment given to any politician. There should be no question of politicians being able to circumvent the law in order to help constituents. In 1993, Justice Minister Máire Geoghegan-Quinn reduced 2,283 court sentences following personal approaches on behalf of those convicted. This amounted to a “private, parallel justice system,” according to a court judgment. She disgraced herself, but this government has now rewarded her with the appointment as European Commissioner.

Not to be outdone in helping constituents, Bobby Molloy sought to intervene in the case of Patrick Naughton after representations from his sister. In October 2001 Naughton was convicted on 18 sample charges of raping and buggering his daughter. Molloy, then Minister of State at the Department of Environment, sought to contact the judge before sentencing.

Mr Justice Philip O’Sullivan refused to take any call. In sentencing Naughton to 11 years in jail, however, he criticised the “totally improper approach” on behalf of Molloy who initially refused to resign. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and Tánaiste Brian Cowen supported him, but he then quit, apparently under pressure from his colleagues in the Progressive Democrats.

By contrast Trevor Sargent went with dignity and grace, thereby striking a blow for a real republic.