Information breakdown a ‘communications issue’

THE Government has described the breakdown in communication that led to Justice Minister Michael McDowell and the Attorney General (AG) both being completely unaware of the Supreme Court decision that plunged the Government into free-fall as a “communications issue”.

However, in the drip-drip of information, it compounded the error by making statements that — 24 hours later — had to be qualified, or contradicted.

In the immediate aftermath of Mr A being released on Tuesday, the Taoiseach Bertie Ahern told the Dáil it was the DPP who had sole carriage of the so-called CC case heard in the High Court and twice in the Supreme Court. That implied the AG and his office had not been involved.