Taoiseach under fire for Laffoy comments

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern’s “offhand and casual” comments on the Laffoy affair were condemned last night as being unworthy of the holder of his office.

In his fiercest broadside against the Taoiseach since becoming leader of Fine Gael, Enda Kenny accused Mr Ahern of having casually and speciously “accepted” Judge Laffoy’s criticisms of delay and lack of co-operation on the part of the Government.

The upshot, he claimed, was that the Government now agreed that it had “stymied” and “sabotaged” the commission and had added to the hurt of victims in the process.

“What is shocking is the Taoiseach’s comments contained no expression of regret,” he said.

“The manner and tone of the Taoiseach’s comments are unworthy of the holder of his office,” he said.

The attack came on the eve of the Government’s detailed response to Judge Laffoy’s five-page letter of resignation, which is expected to be published later today.

The Government spokeswoman said yesterday that the Taoiseach, Minister for Education Noel Dempsey and Attorney General, Rory Brady SC, had spent much of the weekend working on the response and the “complicated issues” involved.

While not confirming that the Government would respond immediately in the wake of today’s Cabinet meeting, the spokeswoman added that the Government “did not want to let the matter go on any longer, it can be avoided”.

The indication was that it would be issued this evening.

The response is expected to be two-tiered. The first part will address the charges the Government itself was responsible for much of the delay.

The second half, which took up much of the deliberations over the course of the weekend, will centre on the ‘solution’ the Cabinet has arrived at to deal with the current impasse that the Commission has found itself in.

Labour Leader Pat Rabbitte, also weighed in with criticism of the Taoiseach yesterday. He criticised the decision not to release the fifteen supporting documents once Ms Justice Laffoy’s letter came into the public domain. He also identified 20 questions which he said the Government was required to answer.

He said the Taoiseach seemed to have accepted Ms Judge Laffoy’s serious criticisms and asked what action did he propose to take by way of political accountability.

He also said that Taoiseach had implicitly accepted that the judge was justified in her decisions to resign, because “Government action prevented [the commission] from discharging its functions as the law required”.

Colm O’Gorman of the victim group, One in Four, said the focus now should move away from recrimination and towards finding “real solutions” that would bring meaningful justice.